Sendai
by MZephyr
Summary: RanmaxAkane. Resolution story, picking up after the failed wedding at the end of the series, in which Akane and Ranma attend their last year of high school away from Nerima.
1. Aftermath

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. There is an author's note at the bottom of this chapter dealing with the entirety of the story.

* * *

**Chapter 1. Aftermath**

In the Nerima ward of Tokyo, in the nation of Japan, a crowd of well-dressed people were dispersing from a particular property on a Sunday afternoon at the beginning of March. Some looked confused, some a little frightened, others shaking their heads in resignation. A few had to be escorted to the gates, all the while congratulating themselves on how they had helped to prevent the one they loved from being forced into a dreadful mistake.

A young man slipped away from the remaining crowd of his relatives and potential future relatives who were still gathered in the dojo, and made his way wearily into the house and up the stairs to the guest room which had been his home for almost two years. His black hair was pulled back into a pigtail, as was his custom, and he was wearing a badly charred tuxedo, which he began to pull off as soon as he was inside. He winced as he removed it, his muscles aching in protest at the movements.

‹What a disaster,› he thought to himself.

Why couldn't their fathers have left them in peace for just once? On the trip back from Jusendo in China he had begun to think that he and Akane were starting to get along better, that maybe the two of them could actually develop some sort of real relationship. Then the two men had to try to surprise them with a wedding ceremony, which had been predictably destroyed by the various individuals who believed themselves to be in love with either Akane or himself.

‹Whatever understanding she and I may have been coming to has probably been set back months at least by those two idiots. This may even have been the last straw.›

He was feeling very depressed. They had come through so much together. At Jusendo, he had killed another trying to save her, but she had died in his arms anyway. He knew she had been dead - she was cold, she was not breathing, her heart was not beating. He had mentally screamed out his love for her, and by some miracle she returned to him. She had looked up at him and smiled, and told him that she had heard everything. He still wasn't sure what she had meant by that, since he had said nothing aloud at the time.

‹Do I really love her? I certainly told myself so, and believed it at the time. Even now I know I have strong feelings for her, and I think it probably is love. But does she feel that way about me? I'm sure now that she doesn't hate me, despite our fighting and insults; there have been too many times where she has helped me. But could she ever love a freak like me? If only Happosai hadn't drunk my cure! I came so close to finally being rid of this curse!›

He sighed again, as he pulled on his trademark black slacks and red Chinese shirt, wondering if he would ever be able to straighten out his life. Perhaps he was simply fated to a lifetime of unhappiness.

‹I'd better be careful. I'm getting so depressed that I might pull off one of Ryoga's Shi Shi Hokodan's, and the house can't really take much more punishment.›

He pulled himself out of the window, and jumped up onto the roof. It was the one place he could ever find around the house where he could do a little thinking in peace.

* * *

The young woman with short black hair paused to wipe the last of the tears off of her face. Her expression was forlorn, the beautiful smile that sometimes adorned it completely absent. She was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, and cast another miserable look at the wedding dress lying crumpled on her bedroom floor. She had not had the energy to put it away properly when she removed it. 

‹Would he have married me? Did I really want him to, or was I just hoping it would end the chaos in my life? We certainly didn't manage to free ourselves from the chaos today. I know I care about him, but he never tells me what he's feeling, or else he turns around and denies it immediately after. But with all of the things he's done for me, he must care about me. I so desperately want some normality in my life.›

She stepped over to her window, and looked out at the sky. Whenever she tried to picture what her life would be like if he left, it felt so terribly empty. But when she tried to picture what it would be like to have him in her life permanently, she found it difficult to visualize.

‹If only everyone would leave us alone! If only we could have a few seconds now and then to talk, to get to know one another. Sometimes I want him so badly, but other times I feel like I barely know him. I just wish there was some way to get rid of the parents, the suitors, the rivals, even my sister Nabiki. If it were just Ranma and I, then maybe we could figure out what our relationship really is.›

A knock came at her door, and her father's voice spoke softly, asking if she was all right.

‹I don't want to talk to him right now. Damn him for forcing this situation today!› She looked up. ‹Ranma often sits on the roof when he wants to be alone to think for a while. Maybe if I go up there I can be left alone to think.›

She climbed out of her window and, taking hold of the edge of the roof, she leaped up out of sight just before she heard her bedroom door open.

* * *

Up on the roof, two teenagers found themselves facing one another for the first time since the bombs had exploded between them earlier that day. Ranma was surprised to find her joining him up there, and nervous as to what her reaction would be to the earlier events. Did she blame him? Was she angry? Her expression was closed, not giving him any clues. Akane saw his nervousness, interpreting it correctly, feeling a twinge of regret that he would so automatically worry about her temper. She had not expected to find him up here, thinking that he would have started on cleaning up the debris, but perhaps they could take advantage of the circumstance and actually talk to one another for once. 

"Ranma. I should have guessed you'd be up here."

He wondered if perhaps, instead of coming up here looking for him, she might have been looking for a place where no one was likely to find her.

"Um, hi Akane. Would you like me to leave?"

"No, that's all right. As long as you don't mind."

She settled down to sit on the roof, a half meter to his right, facing in the same direction. The day was cool, but the sun was shining warmly and there wasn't any wind. They sat there in outwardly companionable silence, for once undisturbed by other people, but inwardly their thoughts were churning. It was perhaps half an hour before either of them spoke again.

"Um, Akane? I just wanted to say you really did look beautiful in your wedding dress today."

The girl continued facing the sky rather than turning toward him, but a hint of pink tinged her cheeks.

"Um, thank you, Ranma."

She paused, hesitating for a moment before continuing. "Can I ask why you ran away from me today as soon as I told you about the Nannichuan water? It was a wedding gift after all, so you would have gotten it afterward. That was what started the mess."

"It may have started it, but the wedding would have been wrecked anyway. Shampoo, Ukyo, Kodachi, and Kuno had nothing to do with the water and they would have attacked anyway. Mousse and Ryoga would have wrecked things too, regardless. And with Happosai present, I really doubt that anything would have gone smoothly even without all of that."

Akane could only sigh in agreement.

Ranma continued, "As for why I ran off that way, I would have thought that was obvious. If I could be cured of my curse, you wouldn't have to feel like you were being forced to marry me just to get me my cure. If I wasn't a freak any more, maybe it would even be possible for you to ... like me." He finished this last sentence very quietly.

This time Akane did turn her head to face him. "Ranma, I wasn't marrying you only to get the water to cure you. I ... I do like you. I don't think of you as a freak. You've had your curse ever since I've known you, and I'm used to it by now. It's just part of who you are. Sure, it would be nice if you didn't have to worry about it anymore, but it doesn't bother me any longer.

"The real reason that I let them talk me into going through with the marriage was because of what you said to me back in Jusendo. I think that the only reason I'm alive today is because you told me then that you love me. But then, when I asked you about it earlier today, you denied it! Just like you always come back with denials any time that you give me a glimpse of your feelings!"

Ranma turned to face her. "I ... I didn't deny it, Akane. It's just, you know me, I always manage to say things in a way that sounds different from what I meant. When you said that to me earlier, I was shocked. I knew I hadn't said that ..."

"Ranma!" Her lips were compressed in anger that he was denying it _again_.

He held out his hands in a gesture which pleaded with her to slow down. "Wait, wait, okay? Just listen. I knew that I hadn't said it out loud. But _inside_ my head, I practically screamed it. You surprised me by saying that you heard it, when I knew I had only thought it."

"Oh." Akane said, quietly. After a moment she asked, "So do you? Love me, I mean?"

She looked very vulnerable at that moment. Ranma tried to choose his words carefully. The last thing that he wanted to do at the moment was to hurt her yet again. He turned to face out toward the sky again.

"I think I do. I felt pretty certain at Jusendo when I was screaming it in my mind. On the other hand, sometimes I feel torn by doubts, especially when I'm feeling worried about how you feel about me. I know, without any doubts at all, that I care about you a lot. I have trouble picturing what my life would be like without you. But we've had so little chance to get to know one another, that sometimes I'm just not sure if it's fair for me to use the word 'love'. All the fighting, the insults, my saying things that hurt you, your hitting me with that damn mallet, those things make me not sure. I think that a lot of it's just habit, left over from when our stupid fathers forced us into this engagement without asking us, but it would be nice to have a little time together once in a while to find out for sure."

Akane sighed again. "You know, that's a pretty good summary of how I feel too. Sometimes, I just wish that everyone else would go away and leave us alone so that we can find out who we really are. Well, maybe not Kasumi, she's never really interfered, but everybody else. But that's never going to happen, so long as we're both living here."

Ranma sat up a little straighter. "Akane, I think you may have just said something important there. I need to take some time to think it over. I'd like to discuss it with you later. Can we meet up here again tonight to talk some more?"

"Um, sure, Ranma." She sounded a bit puzzled.

"Thanks." With that, he jumped down and headed off. From the direction he was headed, he was probably going to his second favorite thinking spot, a secluded location under a bridge.

She looked after him in fond exasperation as he disappeared. ‹I wonder what he thought of? What did I say anyway?›

* * *

The sky was dark as Akane climbed back onto the roof that night, and for the moment she was still alone. Ranma had returned to the house just as everyone was sitting down for the evening meal, and they had had to endure a lecture from her father about the wedding being postponed until the fiancée problems had been resolved. Neither of them had really paid much attention to him. 

A few minutes later, Ranma sat down beside her again. A couple more minutes of silence then passed, as she waited expectantly while he seemed to be getting his thoughts in order. Finally he took a deep breath.

"Akane, I told you earlier today that I care about you and maybe even love you, and you said the same about me. We agreed that it would be nice if we could have some time to ourselves so that we could finally work out how we really feel about one another. Then you said, and I repeat, 'but that's never going to happen, so long as we're both living here'."

"Okay, all of that is true, but what's so significant about it?" Akane sounded a little confused.

"So long as we're living here, we'll never be able to have the time to ourselves that we need to figure out our relationship. We'll be interrupted by fiancées, or rivals, or eavesdropping parents, or we'll be too worried about Nabiki recording what we're saying or taking pictures to ever express ourselves openly. But a lot of that could be avoided if we weren't here, if we were somewhere else."

"But where else could we be?"

"That's what I was thinking about after I left, before I came home for dinner."

He took a deep breath and continued, trying to put a lot of persuasion into his voice. "It's only two weeks until the end of this school year. What I want to suggest is that the two of us disappear after that. Run away, basically, I guess you could say. Go and live in a different city. I've actually got enough money saved that my pop and Nabiki don't know about. We could use it to start us off with a place to live, and then we can both get part-time jobs that should bring in enough extra money, especially during the summer break. We could enroll in a local high school for our last year, and live away from all of the craziness here for the next year while we learn what we really are to one another."

Akane looked dubious. "Do you realize how many problems there are with that scenario? Let me start listing them. No high school will be very happy dealing with two teenagers with no adult in charge. No apartment managers will want to rent to us. And I'm not too sure about living alone with you almost like we were married. Our parents, the fiancées and the rivals will be able to track us down eventually, through school records if nothing else."

"Yeah, I know, I've thought about all that, and I think I have some answers. The most important part of the equation is that Doctor Tofu told me where he was going before he left town."

"Doctor Tofu?" She sounded startled.

"Yeah. He made me promise not to tell anyone where he was, because he couldn't bear to face Kasumi anymore when he couldn't control himself around her. But I was thinking that maybe we could live with him so long as we were contributing money for rent and bills and so on. I called him up on the telephone earlier, before I came back home, to ask how he would feel about such a plan. He said that he'd have to think about it but I think he sounded more surprised than opposed. That would take care of the housing situation, and would give us an adult to deal with the schools, not to mention a doctor who wouldn't insist on dealing with our parents. It means that we wouldn't be living alone together, which hopefully will deal with your concerns."

"You really think he would agree to all of this?"

"Yeah, I think he will. The doc's a good guy, he's in favor of us getting together, and he understands the problems we face. He'd have to find a new place to live, larger than his current apartment so there'd be room for us, but that shouldn't be a problem.

"Now as for everyone following us," he went on. "Our parents will no doubt be upset with us, but the fact that we're there together should mollify them a bit. They want us to be together, after all, and they'll probably see that as an encouraging sign. Besides, it's only a year before we might be leaving home to go to college anyway, so we'd only be jumping the gun by about a year. And the place is far enough away that they couldn't interfere in our lives a lot very easily.

"With regard to the fiancées and rivals, let's go down the list. Shampoo, Cologne and Mousse might be able to afford to close the Nekohanten here and reopen there, but if so, we're no worse off. They also might not. They ought to be starting to get frustrated by now, and it would be an expensive move with no sure payoff. Ukyo would have a hard time moving there - she doesn't have external financial backing like the Amazons and she does have a successful restaurant here, so it wouldn't be very easy for her to try to start over again in a different city. Kodachi and her brother are pretty much tied to their estate, I can't see them wanting to move to another city, forced to live with fewer luxuries, although they'll probably visit just to cause trouble. Ryoga will no doubt show up from time to time, but that's no worse than happens already. Besides, if we get the right kind of apartment, it'll be a lot harder for them to waltz in whenever they want to."

Akane felt like her head was swimming. The idea was preposterous, but he was working hard at making it sound reasonable. "Did you really mean that about going to college next year? I thought that you hated school?"

"Um, well, yeah," he replied nervously. "I've been doing a bit of thinking about that since Jusendo, too. I don't like school much, but I do like the idea of teaching in a dojo, whether or not we get married and inherit your dad's dojo. I want to teach effectively and be able to manage the business side of it and so forth. That means I probably ought to think about going to college and getting a degree in physical education. I guess I'm going to have to start staying awake in class and putting more effort into my homework. I can make better grades than I've been making - a lot of that has been purposeful slacking off because my pop always ragged on me if I seemed to care too much about my schoolwork. Besides, if he's not around to do that, it'll be easier for me to try harder."

"What about training? Our martial arts?"

"Again, we'd face the same problems next year if we go away to college. What I'd hope for is that we can find a nice dojo or gymnasium, near where we live, where we can practice."

Akane was shaking her head. This was too much, too fast. It felt like her brain was overflowing. "But ... we'd have very little time. As you say, it's only a couple of weeks to the end of this school year, and then just a few weeks until the first term of next year. Wouldn't it make more sense to wait until summer break, after we finish the first term?"

Ranma looked pained. "I don't want to wait. I want a chance to get to know the real you, and to escape from all of the pressure. I think the school would put up less fuss if we start the year there than if we try to transfer in later. But the biggest reason is that I don't want to put up with all of the nonsense for another entire school term. Who knows what our parents or some of the others might decide to try during that time?"

She had to nod at the justice of this remark. "But do you think that we could really get away with it? Do you think that our families would let us go?"

"I wasn't planning to ask them, or even tell them. What I was thinking was I'd say I'm going on a training trip right after school ends. They'll insist that I take you along, especially if we both act like we're resisting that idea. We'll take our packs, but not packed for camping, instead we'll take the basic necessities for moving someplace else, and we'll just go straight there. I was thinking that we could bring Kasumi in on the conspiracy, and maybe sometime before we're due back, while nobody is suspicious yet, she can pack up the rest of our stuff that we need and ship it to us."

"You make this sound so reasonable, but there are still a lot of things that could go wrong."

"You need to think less negatively. This could work. Try to imagine what it will be like if it goes right."

Akane stared off into space and quiet reigned for several minutes. Eventually she stood up. "I need to think about this, Ranma. I can't possibly agree to this right now, I need time. I'll let you know in the next day or two."

She walked to the edge of the roof, and swung down through her bedroom window. A little while later she crawled into her bed, but sleep was a long time in coming that night.

* * *

Author's note: 

Warning: The below contains minor spoilers for the story.

This is a Ranma/Akane romance. If you do not care for that pairing, then you are reading the wrong story.

This story is already complete, consisting of sixteen chapters plus an epilogue. Each chapter will be posted after a final editing. You may start it and confidently expect to read the end, barring sudden death or the spontaneous combustion of my computer and backup disks.

This is a resolution story. It starts immediately after the failed wedding at the end of the manga, which within this story is presumed to be a couple of weeks before the end of Ranma's and Akane's second year in high school. Chapter sixteen concludes with their graduation from high school. The epilogue hits a few high points in their life after graduation.

A lot of the story, though by no means all, is relatively waffy, with no truly major crises for the characters. Mature situations increase as the story progresses, although there are only a couple of lime scenes. The focus is intended to be on the characters, and there are only a few fight scenes, little of the supernatural, and even Ranma's curse does not have much of a presence. Some characters may seem to behave a bit out-of-character, but as far as I'm concerned, they're in-character for the purposes of this story. There is a presumption as the story begins that Akane and Ranma are more mature than they were at the beginning of the manga, which is only to be expected given the amount of time which has passed, the things they've been through, and that they are shortly to be turning eighteen.

Happy couples by the end:  
- Akane and Ranma  
- Kasumi and Tofu  
- Ukyo and Konatsu (after some angst for Ukyo)  
- Nabiki and an unnamed offstage character are mentioned at the end.

If you like Ryoga, then you might not like parts of this story, since I regard him as honorless and detestable, and therefore do not treat him nicely. Shampoo also doesn't get a happy ending. (Mind you, I don't kill either of them or anything dark like that.)

This story was written to please myself, to produce a resolution to the story that I liked. After writing it, I decided to post it out of the chance that some others may like it as well, but I will be unconcerned should it turn out that everyone hates it.

I am grateful to my wife for reading this story and making numerous suggestions.


	2. Arrangements

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 2. Arrangements**

The next day, school was a dreadful experience for both Akane and Ranma, but they endured. Anyone who tried to talk or pass a note to either was met with a fierce glare, until by lunchtime everybody was giving them both a wide berth. Even Kuno was no problem after school began - he was pounded into unconsciousness before the first bell and did not awake until after school ended.

When they got home, Ranma went into the dojo to work at clearing some of the debris from the previous day, while Akane went into the kitchen. As she'd expected, she found her oldest sister there, starting on dinner preparations.

"Kasumi, where is everybody? I mean, I know that Nabiki stopped off on the way home from school to talk to some contractors about repairs to the dojo, but where are our parents?"

"Well, Ranma's parents went over to the Saotome house to inspect the status of repairs there, from the damage done by the earlier incident with the fiancées. I don't expect them back before dinnertime, and possibly not until tomorrow. Father is visiting the parents of some of the wedding guests from yesterday, trying to calm them down. Some of them got a little excited about the dangerous situation in which their children found themselves yesterday"

Akane smiled at the thought of her father having to pay such a penalty as a result of his scheming. "Actually, I'm glad we're alone. There's something I want to discuss with you. Ranma has come up with a crazy idea, but it's also a bit tempting. I'm actually beginning to think that it might work, and I'd like your opinion."

With that, she outlined Ranma's plan to her sister. Kasumi's face began to frown at the mention of her little sister going off somewhere to live with Ranma, and when she heard that Ranma knew the whereabouts of Tofu Ono, she gave a gasp and let a knife slip to the floor. Akane had expected some reaction of the sort, and just forged on with the description of the plan.

When she finished, Akane asked, "So, what do you think? Just too preposterous to consider?"

Kasumi stood for a while in thought, her hands trembling slightly. She had been quite hurt when Doctor Tofu suddenly disappeared four months previously, but she found it hard to blame him as she had never made her feelings known to him. She looked over at her youngest sister and realized that, despite her reference to the plan as preposterous, there was a pleading hope in Akane's eyes to be told that maybe this could work.

"This is all rather unexpected, Akane. If you really want my honest opinion, you'll need to give me a little time to think about it. Allow me some time to myself while I finish preparing this, and in an hour perhaps you can join me while I walk to the market. We can talk then."

Akane nodded and left, heading for the dojo to help Ranma. It would likely take them the rest of the day to get it into a state where the repairmen could even begin work.

* * *

It wasn't the best day for a walk to the market, being overcast and rather cold, with light gusts of wind blowing through the streets. However, the two sisters walking along, speaking in low voices, didn't notice.

"Are you really sure you want to consider such an idea, little sister? It would mean leaving home and family. Life would be harder because of the need to work to make money, while still attending school and keeping up with your martial arts."

The younger girl was biting her lower lip, feeling a mixture of worry, nervousness, frustration and eagerness as she thought about the possible future.

"I have been considering it. I do so want some of the craziness to go away for a while, to give me time to think. But I don't want Ranma to go away by himself and leave me, or at least I think I'd be pretty unhappy with that, and so long as he's here the craziness isn't going to stop. For that matter, even without him, dad and Kuno would still be a problem for me. But are you saying that you think that this idea could work?"

Kasumi sighed in concern for her sister. "Yes, I think that it could, although in many ways you would be swapping a set of known problems for a set of unknown ones. I think it may be more difficult than you realize to live away from home, and father is going to be very upset with you, at least at first."

"If you think that there's even a chance that this will work, then I think I want to take that chance. I can't stand the way things are anymore! After the almost-wedding ...," her voice caught in her throat for a moment, "I was almost ready to give up entirely. If this will give us a chance, then I want it."

"Very well, then I would like to suggest a couple of changes to your plan, which you can pass on to Ranma. First, he needs to make sure that Doctor Tofu," her voice pronounced the name with a heavy breath, "has secured the new apartment before you leave. Make sure that he knows all of the conditions that are necessary - near a dojo or equivalent, at least two bedrooms, some sort of security for the apartment building. Second, we should figure out a way to get everyone else out of the house when you're preparing to leave on this 'training trip' of yours. That way you can pack up everything yourselves and ship it to Doctor Tofu so it will be there when you arrive. Third, I will make an appeal to Nabiki which she will receive after the due date of your return from the training trip, that she not help the parents to track you down or keep tabs on you. To be honest, though, I think that they may manage to find you after the beginning of the next school year. Fourth ..."

Kasumi took a deep breath.

"Fourth, I'm coming with you. As chaperon on your alleged training trip, and to live with you at your apartment. You need another adult presence in your life, someone to supervise the household chores - to see that they are done efficiently - and to provide an additional source of income to support the household and your education. This will also give me an opportunity which I have so far neglected, to study for the entrance examinations and then to start college at the same time that you do so."

Akane knew of her oldest sister's long time interest in psychology, and all of the books on the subject which she had borrowed from Tofu and the library, so was not surprised by her desire to attend college. But the idea of her living with them! Although it may have escaped Kasumi's notice at one time, Akane knew that by now her sister was well aware that Tofu behaved insanely only around herself. Bearing this in mind, she gave her companion a long, long look.

"You are aware that Tofu-sensei will go crazy the moment you walk through the door? He won't be able to survive living like that in what will be, at least in name, his own apartment."

Kasumi lifted her chin. "I wasn't planning to inform him, I'm going to simply show up with you and Ranma, and he'll have to cope somehow. Nor do I want you telling Ranma before we leave, I am a little cross with your fiancé for keeping Tofu's whereabouts a secret from me. Assuming that the apartment will have two bedrooms, you and I will share one, and Tofu-san and Ranma may share the other."

Akane shook her head, wondering if any of them would be able to survive living in an apartment with both Kasumi and Doctor Tofu.

* * *

When Akane climbed onto the roof that night, she found Ranma there before her. Stepping across, she sat down beside him and settled the blanket she had brought over them both. The cold day had turned into a colder night.

"I've made my decision, Ranma."

The boy looked at her expectantly. Akane took a deep breath and let it out again.

"We'll try it, but only if Doctor Tofu agrees. Have you talked to him again?"

"Yep. He and I discussed some reservations that he had, but he finally agreed to do it if you said yes."

"Okay. Then please get in touch with him, and ask him to start looking for an apartment with at least two bedrooms immediately. We won't leave until after he has obtained such an apartment. The apartment building should have a reasonable degree of security, so that unauthorized people cannot easily get in. It should be located near a nice dojo where we'll be able to practice. There should also be a decent high school nearby for us to attend. When we make plans for the training trip, we need to find a way for the rest of the family to leave at the same time, so that we can pack up our stuff and ship it to Tofu-san. Kasumi will help us manage that."

"Kasumi?"

"Yes, I told her everything. She thought it over for a while, and has agreed to help us."

Ranma nodded. "That's good news. She'll be a big help managing the families so we can carry this off."

Akane felt a little guilty not telling him that Kasumi would be accompanying them, but she was secretly relieved that her beloved older sister would be there with her, rather than finding herself completely separated from her family. "Kasumi will tell the family that she is coming on the training trip with us. She'll probably stay with a friend for those two weeks. That way she won't be around to be questioned if anyone gets suspicious."

Her fiancé shrugged. "Sounds reasonable. She can tell everyone the truth when she comes back."

"You know, you haven't told me yet just where it is we're going to be living. So where did Doctor Tofu disappear to, anyway?"

He answered hesitantly, as it went against his nature to divulge someone else's secrets. Even if he had been given permission in this case. "Ah, right. Just make sure you don't spill it to Kasumi or anybody. He's living up in Sendai, near the mountains. His clinic is in a medical center and he's sharing his practice with a younger partner, a Canadian I believe he said. Right now he's renting a one-bedroom apartment in a renovated house, but he told me there won't be any problem about the lease, that he can move out as soon as he finds a new place."

"Sendai, huh? Not too far, but far enough to make it inconvenient for people to visit too frequently. Good enough, I suppose."

They continued to talk quietly for a while, making additional plans for how they would get the family to send the three of them together on the training trip, which of their belongings they should pack up to send, and other such details. It was a long time before they stood and, saying good night, parted to go to their separate bedrooms.

* * *

Three days later, Tofu Ono contacted Ranma to inform him that he had signed a lease for a new apartment, one which met the conditions that were needed. In fact, the doctor found that he was quite looking forward to seeing Akane and Ranma again, and his heart went out to the two teenagers who were struggling to get some semblance of order into their lives.

Kasumi had taken note that Nabiki was planning to go away for a long weekend to visit the university she would be attending, and would be leaving on the Wednesday after school ended. A few days later, Soun Tendo announced at dinner that a family friend had presented him with tickets for a martial arts competition in Kyoto. Coincidentally, the competition was taking place at the same time that Nabiki would be away at her university visit.

"So I have these three tickets," Soun concluded. "Genma and I will go of course. Ranma, would you like the third ticket?"

"Naw, I'm not really interested," the young man replied. "Actually, I've been wanting to go off on a training trip for a while now. There are some new moves I've been thinking about that I want to try out, so I think I'll plan to head off that weekend. Hey, pop? Why don't you take Mom instead? You two ought to spend more time together."

Ranma's father Genma turned to his wife Nodoka. "Would you be interested in going with us, dear?"

Nodoka considered briefly, then nodded and smiled. "Yes, I think I would enjoy that, husband."

Genma turned back to his son. "So you're planning on going off on a training trip? Where to?"

Ranma pretended to think it over. "I think I'll go camping up in the mountains. I'm going to want to work with some trees and slopes. I figure I'll be gone for about two weeks."

Genma smiled conspiratorially at his old friend Soun. "Well, that's fine with me. But I think that you should take your fiancée with you."

"What!" exclaimed Akane, manufacturing the tone of anger which her family would expect from her at this proclamation. "I don't want to spend two weeks off camping with this baka!"

"Hey, what makes you think I want an uncute tomboy like you along, anyway!" replied Ranma hotly.

"Ranma, how dare you speak like that to my daughter!" Soun wailed.

"Boy, you'll take her with you and that's final!" shouted Genma.

"Father, I really don't think it's proper for the two of them to be off by themselves like that," Kasumi interrupted, playing her role as the voice of reason. "On the other hand, I wouldn't mind a camping trip myself, so perhaps I should go along with them?"

"Eh, if you don't mind the hiking and camping, it'd be great to have you along Kasumi," Ranma said thoughtfully. "At least that way, we'll be sure to have something to eat that won't poison us."

"Ranmaaaaa!" Akane growled, and smashed her fiancé into the floor with her mallet.

"Well, I'm glad that's settled," said Soun. "How about a game of shogi, Saotome?"

* * *

At one time or another over the next few days, Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi all accosted Ranma to complain about Akane going away with him on a two week training trip. To all of them he replied that it was their fathers' idea, not his, and that Kasumi was going to be along to chaperon. This last item of information did seem to calm them down.

On the day the others were leaving, Ranma, Akane and Kasumi accompanied the rest of their family members to the train station to see them off on their respective journeys. Good-byes were exchanged, and unnecessary words of wisdom about martial arts training were passed on. Finally, the trains pulled out, and the three conspirators were left alone. They started homeward to finish packing. Everyone had been informed that they would be leaving for their training trip the next day.

"Well, this is it," Ranma sighed, thinking about this final stage before their disappearance. "You having any last attacks of cold feet, Akane?"

The girl shook her head, smiling. "Actually, I'm feeling kind of anxious to get out of here. It's going to feel so good to leave all of our troubles behind, at least for a while."

The walk back to the house did not take long, and they started packing. The plan was to ship off the large boxes that day, then spend one more night in the house before heading off to Sendai the next morning.

"I've already called the shipping service," Kasumi told them when they got back home. "They'll be sending over a truck to pick up the boxes in two hours, so we'll need to have everything at the front gate by then."

"No problem," Ranma responded nonchalantly. "I don't have much stuff anyway, and it won't take nearly that long to pack up Akane's things."

In point of fact, it was only a little over one hour before all of Ranma's and Akane's possessions, barring what they would carry with them, were packed up and sitting in boxes just inside the front gate. Kasumi had also finished packing her things, including some personal items from the kitchen such as some cookbooks, although her boxes were still in her room, and were labeled "Akane's room extras."

"Ranma," Kasumi called the boy. Standing just outside of her bedroom door, blocking his view of the interior, she held out a small wrapped parcel. "I need to have this package taken to a friend of mine. Would you mind doing so for me?"

"Sure Kasumi, no problem." Ranma took the package, listened to the address, and headed off. Unbeknownst to him, the package contained a few envelopes with letters, and instructions to mail them in two weeks time. One of them was the letter which he himself had written to Ukyo, expecting that Kasumi would deliver it when she returned home. The others were letters which Kasumi had written to the parents and Nabiki.

As soon as he was out of sight, Kasumi turned to her sister. "Akane, now that Ranma is gone, would you please bring my boxes down to the front gate for me?"

"Okay, but what are you planning to do tomorrow, Kasumi? When Ranma sees you carrying a suitcase when we leave, he will demand an explanation for what's going on. It's bound to delay us. It won't make sense to him for you to carry a suitcase all the way to the train station, and then back to your friend's house, given that our house is between the two."

"I've already thought of that. I'm planning to get an early start and leave my suitcase in a locker at the train station. I'll be empty-handed when I walk there with the two of you, and will retrieve my suitcase and board separately. By the time he sees me on the train, it's going to be too late for him to do anything."

Akane sighed. "He isn't going to be happy that we kept him in the dark like this."

"That's okay. I'll just point out that I'm not happy about his having kept me in the dark about where Tofu-sensei went." There was an uncharacteristic sharpness in the older sister's voice, reflecting the hurt she had felt over the doctor's disappearance.

Akane carried Kasumi's boxes downstairs and put them with the others. The truck came by and picked them all up long before Ranma had returned to the house.

* * *

The next morning Akane and Ranma each shouldered a pack which, for all anyone could tell from the outside, might well have contained camping supplies. Kasumi walked with them to the train station. The first stage was to buy tickets for a train heading to the southwest of Tokyo. Kasumi gave Akane and Ranma hugs, and waved good-bye as they climbed aboard the train. A few minutes later, it pulled out of the station, and the couple both breathed a sigh of relief. They were on their way.

A few minutes later, Kasumi sat down across from them, carrying a suitcase. Ranma looked up in surprised consternation. "Kasumi! What the devil are you doing here? I thought you were staying with a friend?"

She had a smug look on her face, and responded gaily. "Actually, Ranma, I'm coming with you. After you left yesterday, Akane carried down boxes containing my belongings, and put them with the others. They were shipped with yours to our new home."

Ranma turned to stare at Akane with a look of betrayal. "You knew about this?"

His fiancée looked chagrined, not really wanting to be caught in the middle like this. "Yes, Ranma, I'm sorry. But Kasumi wanted me to keep it a secret, as a condition for her help."

Ranma looked a question at the older sister, who replied, "Think of it as a small punishment for keeping Tofu's whereabouts a secret from me."

"But Kasumi," he pleaded with the older sister. "You can't come live with us! Doc Tofu goes crazy whenever he's around you. There's no way that the two of you can live in the same place!"

She was unmoved by this declaration. "Well, Ranma, the way I see it, he's not going to have any choice. I figure that he can't stay that way permanently, so sooner or later he'll have to figure out how to control himself in my presence." Under her breath, she added, "Now that I know where he is, I don't intend to let him slip away from me again."

Ranma shook his head, buried his eyes in his hands, and moaned. "This is never going to work. Never. If he doesn't end up dancing all over Sendai with his anatomical skeleton, he'll probably twist me into a human pretzel. Even if it could work, I'm not sure that any of us will survive long enough."

"Remember what you said, Ranma," his fiancée spoke up perkily. "Think less negatively. Imagine what it will be like if it goes right."

Ranma just moaned again.

* * *

The three of them got off of the train at the next stop, still well within Tokyo, far short of the destination on their tickets. They hiked through the city over to the next ward, then took the subway across the city. After another hike of a few more kilometers to another train station, they finally purchased tickets for Sendai.

Emerging from the Sendai train station later that day, they took a moment to look around at the city which would be their home for at least the next year.

"It'll do," Akane declared.

Ranma waved down a taxi. The three of them climbed into it, and he gave the driver the address of their new home.


	3. Here's Kasumi

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 3. Here's Kasumi**

The taxi pulled up in front of a six story apartment building which looked as though it had been built about a decade ago. They got out, retrieved the luggage, paid the driver, and then walked up to the heavily barred entrance. Ranma looked over the names, and pushed the button marked "Ono - Apt 504."

"Hello?" came a once-familiar voice.

"Hi, doc," Ranma said tentatively. "It's me. We're here, can we come up?"

"I'm looking forward to seeing you again. Come on in." A buzzer sounded, and Ranma opened the door, motioning the girls to precede him.

They took the elevator up to the fifth floor, and located the door marked 504. Akane knocked, and the door opened to reveal the features of the kindly young doctor they remembered.

"Ranma! Akane! It's wonderful to see you again." Then Kasumi stepped in front of the doorway from where she had been standing off to the side. The young doctor blinked several times and his glasses fogged over. "K-K-Kasumi! What a surprise! Fancy meeting you here!" He then started giggling.

The older girl reached out with an arm, and pushed the unresisting doctor back into his apartment. The other two followed her in.

"Hello, Tofu-san." Kasumi said softly. "It's very nice to see you again. I'm afraid that Ranma forgot to tell you that I'm going to be living here too. So it's time to learn how to behave around me."

"Betty!" Tofu called out his skeleton's name, as he jumped in the air, his body spinning through two complete rotations. "Kasumi's here! We need to tell everyone!" The doctor ran through the apartment, and the newcomers heard the sound of cupboards and doors opening and closing, accompanied by singing.

"Ranma," Kasumi said seriously. "Please lock the door and put something heavy in front of it. I don't want him slipping out. Then go find where he is and stay with him. Wait for him to calm down, and when he has, ask when he has to be at work next. After that I'll join you, and we'll begin his desensitization training."

"As long as you don't make me stay in the same room," Ranma replied nervously, as he pushed a heavy couch in front of the apartment door. He then walked down the hall toward the back rooms to find the doctor. He found the man in the western-style bathroom sitting in the tub, fully clothed, with the water level rising. The skeleton Betty was having its skull shampooed.

"C'mon doc, snap out of it." Ranma slapped him lightly across the face, before turning off the water to allow the tub to drain.

"R-Ranma?" Tofu's eyes slowly focused on the boy's face before darting behind him to the open door and back again. "Am I dreaming? Or was that actually K-K-Kasumi out there?"

"Yep, doc, it sure was," he replied guiltily. "I'm sorry, I would have told you if I'd known. I'm afraid she and Akane had me fooled. I had no idea that she was planning to come with us."

"Oh, god, what am I going to do?" the poor doctor moaned, dropping his face into his hands. He looked up again. "Did she say she was going to be living here? She can't live here! I'll go insane. I'll go out of my mind!"

Ranma gave a little laugh, a mixture of equal parts sympathy and guilt. "Heh. Looked to me like you were already out of your mind a few minutes ago. So you won't have far to go, huh?"

Tofu gave him a dirty look. "You don't understand anything. You don't know what it's like to have a woman drive you crazy." He moaned, once more covering his face with his hands. "How can I face her? What must she think of me!" He began to struggle to get out of the tub. "I've got to get out of here. I have to go. I can't take this."

Ranma pushed him back down, none too gently. That crack about not understanding had stung.

"Suck it up, doc. She says you're not leaving until you learn to control yourself, unless you gotta go to work. Speaking of which, when do you have to be there next?"

"I cleared my schedule for today and tomorrow. I thought I might be needed to help you and Akane settle in, so I don't have to be there again until Monday." A fog of despair seemed to surround him. "I'll be out of my mind by then!"

"Well, Kasumi ought to be back here in a minute, so I'm getting out and staying as far away as I can. You'd better start figuring out how to stop the way you act around her. I gotta feeling she's real serious about this."

The response came in the mournful tone of a man on the way to the gallows. "Fine way to repay my generosity, Ranma, helping you with the place to live and everything."

"Sorry doc. Like I said, I had no idea she was going to come with us. And the way I figure it, she's right. After a couple of days, you're either going to be permanently around the bend, or you'll have it under control, and if it's the latter, I suspect you'll be pretty happy about how everything turned out." There was a knock at the door. "Gotta go now."

Ranma walked out of the bathroom, and a moment later Kasumi walked in. She shut the door behind herself. From time to time Akane and Ranma would hear gibbering noises from behind the door, together with snatches of song and doggerel. They were feeling a little embarrassed and a little worried by their friend's antics, but mostly tried to ignore it.

Akane and Ranma took the opportunity to explore the corner apartment. The front door let into a living room with a window on one side. There was a small dining area on the opposite side of the living room, and a doorway into a very small kitchen. A hallway led back from the living room opposite the front door. The bathroom door was on one side of this hallway. At the end of the hallway was a door on either side opening into two bedrooms which were mirror images of one another, except for the furnishings. Each had a single window in the back wall. One bedroom had a bed and a futon, and contained the boxes marked "Ranma." The other bedroom had a single futon, and contained the boxes marked "Akane" and "Akane's room extras."

"We'll need to go out and get another futon for your bedroom," Ranma said to Akane.

They spent some time unpacking boxes, and putting items away. At one point, while they were both unpacking a small box of Kasumi's stuff in the kitchen, they heard an insane giggle from the hallway followed by a deep feminine sigh. On looking out, they saw that the bathroom was now unoccupied, but the door to Tofu's and Ranma's room was now closed. It sounded like a low voice was spouting poetry from behind the door. Shrugging, they went back to unpacking the kitchen items.

Later in the afternoon it was decided that they couldn't risk Ranma leaving in case Tofu needed to be restrained, so Akane went out by herself to purchase another futon and arrange to have it delivered. She also picked up extra bedding. The futon arrived about an hour after she returned.

At Kasumi's request, Ranma prepared the supper, while she stayed in the room with the poor doctor. Akane took two portions back to the room, then came back out to eat with Ranma in the dining area. The whole situation was feeling very bizarre to them. After washing up from dinner, the couple watched television for a while before preparing for bed.

Eventually, Kasumi relented for the night. She went to take a bath, her absence giving Tofu a chance to calm down. After she finished, while Ranma kept the doctor out of sight, she went into the bedroom with Akane and shut the door. The doctor was then able to take his own bath and retire to his bedroom with Ranma.

"So, what're your prospects for survival, doc?" Ranma asked a bit callously, too tired to be tactful.

"Right now I just want to go to sleep. Nightmares will be better than the living nightmare this day has been." After a short pause, he added in a surprised voice, "On the other hand, at some point I did stop talking about Betty."

"That's a good sign, doc. Keep it up and you'll be fine in a month or two. Or three. Or four."

Tofu grimaced and tossed a pillow at the boy. "Go to sleep, Ranma."

The young man grinned, and did so.

* * *

The next morning was a repeat of the previous evening, with Kasumi appearing from time to time to report that Tofu's periods of lucidity seemed to be getting a bit longer. Akane and Ranma were growing bored, confined to the apartment, but they did not feel that they could leave since Kasumi might need them, to help prevent Tofu from escaping if nothing else.

After lunch, Kasumi relented for a while and went out to purchase some groceries. She asked Akane and Ranma to try to keep Tofu in the apartment, as she was afraid that he might relapse if he were allowed out too soon. After she left, the poor doctor stumbled out into the living room and collapsed on the couch, exhausted.

"I'm going to die," he moaned piteously, fishing for sympathy.

Declining to sympathize, much to the poor man's surprise, Akane and Ranma just grinned. "Nah, you'll survive," Ranma said, "it just feels like you're dying. But you're getting better, actually."

"You really think so?" he asked, dim hope coloring his voice.

Akane answered. "Yeah. For the last hour or so, we almost didn't hear you at all."

Tofu just groaned, while the two of them laughed.

He retreated back into the bedroom shortly before Kasumi returned. After putting away the groceries, she joined him once more.

* * *

That evening while Akane was watching television, Ranma came and joined her in his cursed female form.

"Did you get splashed, Ranma? We have plenty of hot water. Why don't you change back?"

She got up as if to get some, but Ranma stopped her, dropping down onto the couch beside her.

"I'm trying an experiment. Earlier today, I was thinking about some of the times back in Nerima when I got splashed and didn't have an opportunity to get hold of any hot water right away. It seems to me that once I did change back to male, that I didn't have as many accidents with water immediately after. I'm wondering if I voluntarily spend some time in my cursed form, whether I might be a bit less of a water magnet at other times. So, I'm going to try spending an hour or two each night in my female form."

Akane nodded, looking a little impressed. "That sounds like a good idea. So why didn't you ever think of trying this before?"

"Dunno. Maybe I never thought of it 'cause I never had time to think."

After the television program went off, Ranma took a hot bath, changing himself back into a male. When he went to bed, he looked over at his roommate, examining him critically, and found that he was a little worried. Tofu's eyes were bloodshot, with dark circles under them. He was staring at the ceiling and didn't respond to Ranma's teasing.

‹Man, I hope this doesn't take too much longer,› Ranma thought to himself before drifting off to sleep.

* * *

Saturday was pretty much a repeat of Friday. Sunday morning found Ranma, Akane and Kasumi sitting at the table, eating breakfast. An unshaven apparition with bloodshot eyes and wearing a robe over pajamas stumbled into the room and sat down with them.

"Good morning Ranma, Akane, K-Kasumi."

"Good morning, Tofu," Kasumi replied calmly, a serene expression on her face.

"I think I'd like some breakfast," he said, then stood to get the necessary dishes and utensils, serving himself. It was notable that as he did so, he avoided looking directly at the older of the two sisters, who was seated at the table to his left. He seemed fatigued, but otherwise appeared to be sane.

Akane continued the conversation the doctor's arrival had interrupted. "Did you see the news about the minister's secretary who was caught taking bribes ..." From there talk continued among the other three, with Tofu merely contributing an occasional "Hmmm" when a query was sent in his direction.

As breakfast drew to a close, Tofu spoke up again. His voice sounded very weary, and he did not look up from his bowl.

"Ranma, Akane. If you're interested, I noticed there were some part-time jobs available at the medical center where I work. I believe there might be some at hours for after school work. Perhaps you could come with me tomorrow?"

"That sounds great, doc. Thanks," Ranma said.

"Yes, thank you, Doctor Tofu," Akane added.

"I believe that I will also come and see what jobs are available," Kasumi put in. "I would like to have some spending money of my own, and to contribute my fair share to our living expenses. Also, I need to start saving money. I plan to take the entrance exams next spring with these two, and then start college at the same time that they do."

Ranma shared a look with Akane, consisting of mutual fear. The good doctor seemed to be a lot better around Kasumi this morning, but they were by no means prepared to climb into a car with Kasumi if Tofu was behind the wheel.

"Umm, actually," Ranma began tentatively, "I'd like a chance to get to know the neighborhood here and the area around the medical center a bit better. Perhaps Kasumi, Akane and I can make our own way there a little later in the morning."

Tofu snorted softly, knowing exactly why the younger man made that suggestion. "Of course, Ranma. That's probably wise."

For the rest of that day, Kasumi did not torture Tofu with her presence quite so strenuously. She was not always in the same room as him, allowing him some periods of peace, but she made a point of being around him at regular intervals throughout the day. Ranma finally got out of the apartment for a while, and went on a long walk around the neighborhood with Akane. They both realized they were feeling quite cheerful.

"Y'know 'kane, I never realized how nice it could feel to just walk beside you, when I don't have to worry at all about bicycle riding Amazons, spatula wielding chefs, or flower bouquets filled with gas.

"Not to mention mad samurais shouting 'Hold, foul sorcerer', but I suppose you're not really safe from hearing 'Ranma Saotome, prepare to die'," the girl beside him giggled.

"Ugh, you didn't have to remind me of that last one. Well, hopefully it will even take Ryoga a little while to find us here."

"I wish the two of you could get along a bit better. He seems like a pretty nice guy."

Ranma sighed. "I really do need to explain a bit more about that to you someday. But not right now, I'm in too good a mood."

As they continued to walk along, Ranma was remembering another walk they once made together when nobody was bothering them, after he thought he had lost her to Shinnosuke and was proven wrong. He glanced down to his side, and gradually moved his right hand over, until the fingertips brushed the back of Akane's left hand. She looked down, a little startled, but then gave a small smile and turned her hand slightly, accepting. He enfolded her hand in his, smiled a little himself, and continued walking.

The two teenagers were late getting back from their very long walk, which had been extended well beyond what they had originally planned, for no greater reason than neither of them wanting it to end.

At dinner that evening, Tofu managed to contribute a few complete sentences to the conversation. When he came to bed that night after his bath, Ranma thought to himself that the doctor wasn't looking quite so haggard as he had the previous evening.

‹Looks like Kasumi was right,› he thought to himself. ‹I think that this is really going to work out.›


	4. Employment

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 4. Employment**

On Monday morning, Tofu ate his breakfast quietly, then left to drive to his clinic. While Kasumi and Akane washed up (there wasn't really room for a third person in the kitchen), Ranma sat at the table going over employment ads in the newspaper, marking possibilities both for himself and for the girls. From time to time his voice would call out with a question, such as "Is anyone interested in a job as an assistant librarian?" or "Just what the heck is an actuary?" By the time that he was done, there were about three dozen prospects marked, of which about a third were in the near vicinity of either their apartment or the medical clinic, and another third, only partially intersecting the first, were part-time jobs which Akane or Ranma would be able to do after school or on weekends.

Afterward the trio left the apartment and walked three blocks to a bus stop, where they waited about ten minutes before the bus they were waiting for pulled up, one which would drop them off at a short distance from the medical center. Akane sat beside Ranma, and Kasumi sat across the aisle from them. As the bus drove off, Ranma turned to speak to Kasumi.

"I've gotta hand it to you, Doc Tofu does seem to be getting himself under control. Another day or two and he might be just about normal."

Kasumi allowed herself a mischievous smile. "Yes, nothing like throwing a person into a river to see if he can learn to swim."

Akane, sitting beside Ranma on his other side, growled. "Not the analogy that I would have chosen." Then her voice brightened a bit, "Still, it seems to be working a lot better than I had expected."

"I just hope he's going to forgive me once it's over with," Ranma sighed.

After getting off of the bus, they walked several blocks to reach the medical center containing Doctor Tofu's clinic. They then split up to obtain and fill out applications for the several part-time (or in Kasumi's case, full-time) positions which, as Tofu had suggested, were available. This took the rest of the morning after which, as previously agreed, they met at the clinic to go out to lunch together. Ranma walked in to find Akane and Kasumi in the waiting room already. His fiancée looked up at him with a smile.

Looking back at her, Ranma pointed first to Kasumi and then back into the depths of the clinic, a question in his eyes. Akane grimaced, and shook her head in the negative. As he walked over to them, the older girl also noticed his presence.

"Hi. Is Doc Tofu ready to go to lunch yet?" he asked aloud.

"The receptionist told us that he's with his last patient now," Kasumi replied. "He should be out in just a few minutes."

Ranma took the opportunity to look around at what he could see of the clinic, which amounted to the waiting room, the office behind the receptionist, and through an open door a bit of hallway beyond which the examination rooms presumably were located. It seemed to be a very nice place, perhaps even a little bit more upscale than Ranma was expecting of the kindly doctor who wasn't above using ancient folk remedies. He then sat down beside Akane and picked up a year-old magazine to browse through while he waited. After a few minutes a little old man, presumably the patient, came out into the waiting room and left. A short while later Tofu emerged as well. He started shuddering when he caught sight of Kasumi, but got himself under control after a minute.

"Everyone ready to go eat?" he asked. "Although I suppose that goes without saying in your case, Ranma."

Ranma growled while the girls giggled, and they all filed out, and came out of the building into a bright and sunny day. Tofu led them on a short walk down the street to a small Italian café. After they sat down and ordered, the doctor asked about their luck with the job applications at the medical center.

Ranma gave him a lopsided smile. "Well, I wasn't having much luck with most of the places, but the head of facilities hired me on the spot as a member of the maintenance staff. It doesn't pay quite as much as some of the other positions would, but it's still pretty good and I know I can do the work."

Akane looked a little forlorn. "None of them offered me a job yet, although a couple of them said that they might be in touch after they check my references. I hope one of them comes through."

Kasumi for her part smiled demurely and said, "Well, I also don't have a firm offer yet, but two of the clinics trying to hire a receptionist seemed favorably inclined. One is an optometrist, and the other is a pediatrician. They both said that they would probably be in touch tomorrow to let me know."

Tofu's hands trembled briefly at the thought of her working in the same building as himself, but inwardly he was smiling, as he hoped that soon there would be no signs left of his old affliction. Akane on the other hand grimaced, not having received as warm a reception as her elder sister. However, she soon cheered up as the conversation moved onto other matters. They spent a while discussing the excellent food, and places of interest in Sendai that Tofu had visited or heard of, until he changed the subject to ask about how and when they were informing everyone of their departure.

All three started speaking at once, but Akane and Ranma fell silent almost immediately, allowing Kasumi to explain. "I left a package containing four envelopes with a friend in Nerima, with instructions to mail them two weeks after we left, which is when we are due back from this alleged training trip. Two were somewhat similar letters to our father and Ranma's parents, explaining what we had done and our reasons for doing so. The third was addressed to Nabiki, appealing to her as a personal favor to me not to help our parents or anyone else to discover where we have gone. I believe she will heed this request, if only because she should still be feeling guilty after a long talk which I had with her concerning the part that she played in the wedding fiasco."

Kasumi fell silent, letting Ranma take up the thread of the narrative. "The fourth is addressed to Ukyo. While I haven't come close to forgiving her for what she did at the wedding, she was a friend of mine for a long time. I explained that I had originally felt a debt of honor to her as a result of the engagement my pop made between us, even though the engagement to Akane had prior claim, and that I could understand that she felt a need to try to put a stop to that wedding both because of her claim and the fact that she knew that getting married that day wasn't my idea. But I also told her that there was a right way and a wrong way to try to do that, and wrecking the wedding and dojo, and throwing around bombs that could have injured guests as well as members of my family and the Tendo's, was so deeply wrong that I consider the debt of honor which I once owed her as canceled. I informed her that due to our previous friendship, I would probably forgive her one day, but that would take a long while and I wanted some time away from her. I asked her not to try to find me."

Tofu nodded. "What about the other girls? Shampoo and, ... what was her name? Kodachi Kuno, wasn't it?"

Akane snorted feelingly. "We're not telling them anything. We'll let them figure it out for themselves sometime after we don't come back from our 'training trip', when they realize they haven't seen us yet. Probably they'll ask Nabiki, who will tell them the truth, that we've left to live somewhere else and she doesn't know where. In our letter to her, we told her that she doesn't have to keep that a secret from anyone."

"And how do you think everyone will react to your disappearance?" the doctor asked.

Kasumi tilted her head to the side slightly, and spoke consideringly. "Everyone will be upset with us of course. Our parents will be livid about not having been consulted, and not being able to control Akane's and Ranma's lives. I think that they will have trouble finding us if Nabiki does not help them. Nabiki will be unhappy that we are asking her not to sell information regarding our whereabouts, and that she will no longer be able to make money off of these two. However, I believe that she will heed our request not to help find us." She was secretly hoping that she was right about this last statement.

"Ukyo will be deeply unhappy, but I believe she will not pursue Ranma. The tone of his letter to her makes it clear that doing so will not help her standing with him. The Kuno's are likely to be little more than a nuisance even after they find us. They will find us more quickly if they hire private investigators, which they can certainly afford to do, but I think it more likely that they will rely upon their servant Sasuke to find us, which should take longer.

"Cologne and Shampoo will probably track us down shortly after the start of the school term. However, their reaction is much harder to predict. Shampoo is unquestionably infatuated with Ranma, but is unlikely to openly defy Cologne. By this time, I think that Cologne might be growing worried over the idea of bringing Ranma back to her village. The man who killed Saffron is hardly likely to fit into the subservient role that is expected of males of her people, and could even prove dangerous.

"Ryoga is just as likely to stumble across us here before he even shows up in Nerima again. Despite his total lack of a sense of direction, he demonstrates an uncanny knack for appearing where and when you least expect him. However, I think the fact that Akane voluntarily chose to come here to live with Ranma is more probable to cause him to go into a fit of depression than to react with violence."

Ranma caught himself staring at Kasumi, and dropped his eyes down to his plate. He had never expected such an analysis of people's reactions from her, having always regarded her as being rather oblivious to the goings on in the Tendo home. The only point on which he found himself in disagreement was in her assessment of Ryoga's likely reaction. Of course, that was hardly surprising, as there was pertinent data about him which she did not possess.

When they had finished their meal, Doctor Tofu paid the bill and they left. He went back to his clinic while the other three went off to explore some of the job opportunities Ranma had marked in the newspaper that morning, particularly those which might be appropriate for Akane or Kasumi. Neither were offered jobs on the spot, but Akane was a little more cheerful by the time they got home since a couple of the prospects had seemed promising.

* * *

Later that afternoon, after they had returned to the apartment, Akane and Ranma were at the table cutting shapes out of dough for cookies while Kasumi was in the kitchen beginning dinner preparations. The telephone rang and Ranma, being closest, answered it. "Hello, this is the Ono residence. Yes, one moment. ... Kasumi, it's for you."

The young woman wiped her hands clean, then took the telephone from Ranma. "Hello, this is Kasumi Tendo. Yes. Yes. No, that's fine. Yes, that sounds good. I'm really looking forward to it. Thank you very much. Good-bye."

She hung up the phone and turned around smiling.

"Good news?" asked Akane.

"Yes. That was the pediatrician's office at the medical center where I applied as a receptionist. They've offered me the position and I accepted. I start work there tomorrow morning."

"Hey, that is good news," Ranma said. "Congratulations, Kasumi."

Akane also smiled and congratulated her sister. She hoped that she had managed to keep any envy out of her voice while doing so, but knew deep down that she was not really fooling Kasumi.

* * *

That evening Akane, Ranma and Tofu were watching a comedy series on television, while Kasumi sat at the table reading a book. Tofu was sitting in a comfortable chair angled so that its back was to the dining area, while the two teenagers were sitting together on the couch. Akane was leaning slightly on Ranma's shoulder, ostensibly for a better view of the television.

Tofu spoke up, "I'm thinking that tomorrow might be a good time to go by Masamune High School and see about getting the two of you registered. I've already spoken with the principal, and he has agreed in principle to overlook the irregularities of your situation. I was thinking that Kasumi and I could meet you there at lunchtime."

"Sounds like a plan, doc," said Ranma. "Could you leave us the address of that dojo you mentioned before you go tomorrow? Akane and I could stop by tomorrow morning to try to make arrangements to use it. I don't want to go too much longer without a good sparring session. I'll need to go there in the morning since I have to report for my first day of work tomorrow afternoon."

"Sure Ranma. In fact, let me go get you the address now."

He stood, caught sight of Kasumi reading at the table and gave a single tremor from head to toe, but immediately got himself back under control and went back to the bedroom. He returned a minute later holding a piece of paper with an address written on it. He handed this to the boy and returned to his seat.

With a carefully casual air, not looking behind himself, he requested, "While you're there, you might mention that Kasumi and I will probably want to use the facilities a little as well, although not to nearly the same extent as the two of you."

* * *

The next morning after Kasumi and Tofu had already left, and Akane and Ranma were getting ready to go out to visit the dojo, the telephone rang. Akane answered. "Hello?"

"May I speak to Akane Tendo please?"

"This is Akane Tendo speaking."

"Oh, good. I'm with Human Resources at the hospital. I understand that you applied for a job with the IT department yesterday, something to do with data entry for patient records. We'd like to offer you the position. You do understand that it is only a part-time position, three hours a day on weekdays, and five hours on Saturday, for a total of twenty hours per week?"

"Yes, I understand, and I'd be happy to accept the job. May I ask how much it pays?"

The woman on the other end answered her, and after a few more minutes of conversation Akane hung up, having arranged to go to the hospital that afternoon in order to take care of the necessary paperwork and to undergo a brief orientation. She would begin the actual work the next day.

"So, what job did you just accept?" Ranma asked, smiling at her evident happiness. "Oh, and congratulations by the way."

Akane smiled. "It's a computer job entering data for patient records. It's at the hospital, just down the street from the medical center."

She told him a few more pertinent facts about the job, including the pay. Ranma scowled slightly, then gave a half-hearted grin.

"Looks like everybody else is going to get paid better than me. Ah well, I shouldn't complain; I'm getting paid well enough, and the more we all make in total the better."

Akane stuck out her tongue at him. "As if it really matters, jerk. Besides, I'll only be making slightly more than you. I could wipe out the excess by treating you to a single visit to an ice cream parlor, at least considering the way that you eat. Now come on, I want to see this dojo."

They left the apartment together, and walked the two blocks to the address written on the paper Tofu had given Ranma. They found the place easily enough, even though the sign outside was rather discreet, and they realized that they had overlooked it both going and coming during their walk on Sunday. Stepping inside, they nodded appreciatively as they took stock of the set up of the facilities. There was a class currently in progress, so they stopped just inside the door and waited to be noticed. After a few minutes, the man who was leading the class left the students to perform a drill and came over to talk to the couple. He was in his early forties and wearing a black belt.

"May I help you? Are you perhaps interested in signing up for classes? I am Saeto Hikari. I own this dojo and, as you can see, teach classes with the help of my sons, although I am afraid that neither of them is here at the moment."

Akane and Ranma both bowed to the man.

"Hello, Sensei," Ranma began. "My name is Ranma Saotome, and this is my fiancée Akane Tendo. We are the heirs to the Saotome School and Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts. We're not actually interested in classes, but are looking for a place where we can practice while we are living nearby, and we were hoping that you might be willing to let us use your dojo for such a purpose. We would be willing to pay a reasonable fee, of course."

"Would you object to giving me a small demonstration, to judge your level of skill?"

"Not at all." Ranma turned to his fiancé. "Akane, would you mind performing that kata with me, the one which we were practicing in the park the other day?"

Akane smiled at him, and the two of them stepped away from the door and flowed into the kata. They were moving synchronously, throwing kicks, punches and blocks, making leaps and spins, as if there were but a single mind controlling both their bodies. As they progressed, they increased their speed until they were moving in a blur. The class had ceased their drill, and were staring at the couple with hanging jaws. The pair ended their kata standing beside one another, and bowed to the sensei. It did not appear that either one was even sweating, let alone breathing hard.

"Well, that was certainly impressive," complimented the older man, regarding them with greater interest. "Perhaps one of you would agree to spar with me?"

Although he had clearly been addressing Ranma, Akane stepped forward, and Ranma bowed to her, acceding to her implied request. She smiled happily back at him and dropped into a loose stance. Saeto attacked her after a moment.

A couple of minutes later, looking from their sensei lying flat on his back trying to get his breath back, to Akane, standing over him offering him a hand up, the members of the class were absolutely certain that they never wanted to upset this girl with the short black hair. One of the more experienced students, wearing a brown belt, swallowed particularly hard. He knew from bruising experience that his sensei, a sixth dan black belt, was very good, and this young girl had not only defeated him, but had made it look easy.

"Ah, yes," the man wheezed from the floor. "I believe that I can admit that you are really quite good. I expect that your fiancé is equally skilled?"

"Actually, he's a lot better than I am. But someday I hope to be as good." The girl grinned, enjoying the looks of astonishment on the other faces as they tried to picture someone being better than what they had just seen demonstrated.

"Well, I believe that we can indeed come to an agreement, provided you're willing to fit your practices in around my class schedules. I also think we can keep the fees quite reasonable, especially if you'd be willing to teach me some of those moves of yours."

"We'd be more than happy to do so," Ranma said, also grinning widely. "We have a couple of roommates who are pretty good too, if not quite at our level, who might like to join us occasionally, if you don't mind."

"Then if you could wait until after I dismiss my class, I am sure that we can come to an accommodation with one another."

Once the class had filed out, it only took a couple of minutes of negotiations before they settled on the fees for use of the dojo, and made an initial payment. With a final set of bows they took their leave.

* * *

Lunchtime found them standing at the gates of the high school, about one and a half kilometers from their apartment. Although the architectural design was very different from Furinkan, the quality of the facilities did not appear, from the outside at least, to be either particularly better or worse than their former school. They had been waiting for about fifteen minutes before Tofu and Kasumi finally drove up.

The doctor seemed a little flustered. "Sorry, we were delayed a little in traffic. Let's go in."

In the school office, they only had to sit and wait five minutes or so after giving their names to a secretary, before being shown in to the principal's office. The man behind the desk reminded them of a kindly old grandfather, except for the grey eyes that spoke of an iron will. He stood and bowed to the four, before resuming his seat.

"Greetings. I am Principal Bansui. I am a patient of Ono-sensei; he tries to keep me alive despite the high blood pressure I get from this job. He has told me quite a tale regarding the two of you, which I would find completely unbelievable if anyone else had told it to me. Actually, I fear I find it more than a little unbelievable even so. Would you mind demonstrating this supposed curse for me, young man?"

The principal gestured to two thermoses standing on a table at the side of the room. Ranma sighed, stood up, and walked over to them. He opened them both, and determined which one was cold and which was hot. With a grimace he lifted and poured the cold water over his head.

Despite having been told what would happen, the older man realized in that moment that, deep down, he had not accepted it emotionally. He found himself staring with a degree of shock into the sad blue eyes in the face of the young red-haired girl standing there.

"That really is extremely bizarre," the principal murmured. "Forgive me, young man, I am quite sure that you've had more than your fill of people staring at that phenomenon. Unfortunately, I needed to be sure of the facts of the case before I proceed further with this matter. Please transform yourself back, and let us continue."

Ranma gladly poured the hot water over himself, changing back once more into a black-haired male, then dried himself with a towel which had been lying folded on the table beside the thermoses. He walked over and sat in the chair beside Akane once more.

"I hope that the two of you appreciate the irregularity of this situation. Under ordinary circumstances, I wouldn't even consider doing what Ono-sensei has requested of me. Normally we deal only with parents of our students. In a few cases we deal with legal guardians for students who have lost their parents, or guardians designated by the parents if the students have been sent to live with such, who are usually other family members. In your case, your parents are alive and are legally your guardians, and are unaware of your presence here.

"However, these are not ordinary circumstances. Further, aside from my respect for Ono-sensei, there are a couple of mitigating factors which have prompted me to consider permitting this. The first is that my own first marriage was arranged by our parents, and was a disaster." His eyes took on a distant look, and it was almost as if he were speaking to himself. "We were both dreadfully unhappy for nine long years before she succumbed to pneumonia. Mind, I would have wished her well with another, and am sorry that she had to die so unhappy, but we just found it impossible to get along with one another." He cleared his throat, seeming to come back to the present. "Consequently, I tend to be very sympathetic to young people who have to deal with manipulative parents who insist on interfering in such matters.

"The second factor is that Doctor Tofu has told me a lot of background about how you were raised by your parents. Enough that I feel quite confident that _if_ the matter were pushed far enough, they could be taken to court and declared incompetent and you could be removed from their custody. I understand that you do not wish to go so far, at least so long as they do not push you to that point, but I believe that the threat of it can afford me a measure of protection. At least to the point where I am willing to take the risk.

"But I want to be sure that the both of you understand that I am going out on a limb for you. Do not make me regret this decision. I expect you both to do as well at your schoolwork as may be reasonably expected, to show respect to your teachers, and not to be the instigators of trouble."

"Yes, sensei," both teenagers replied, bowing slightly in their seats.

"You understand, Ono-san, that you are filling the role of guardian for the both of them? Tendo-san, of course, may also share that duty with regard to her younger sister. You will sign any documents they bring home which would normally be signed by parents, such as permission forms, and you are the one who will be contacted in case of trouble or if their teachers wish to meet with the person who is responsible for them."

"Yes, I understand."

"Very well. When filling out your paperwork, please put Ono-san's name where it asks for 'parent or guardian'. Here is the name and office number of your guidance counselor, who is just down the hall from here, and with whom you have an appointment to speak immediately after we are finished. He will take care of your paperwork, arrange your class schedules, and give you information on school uniforms and such matters. As per a request of Ono-san, you will share most of your classes, as he tells me that Tendo-san has previously been instrumental in helping Saotome-san keep his grades up."

The principal handed over a couple of business cards, which Akane and Ranma took from him. They contained the name, office number and phone number of the guidance counselor.

"One more thing. I'll be talking with the boys' gym coach later today. I will inform him that due to medical reasons Saotome-san is to be granted permission to use the teachers' locker room instead of showering with the rest of the boys. Hopefully this will ward off any awkward situations involving water in the locker rooms."

"Thank you very much, Bansui-sensei," Ranma said.

As everyone stood, Kasumi asked, "Is there any need for Doctor Tofu and I to remain here? We really should be getting back to work."

"No. Since I've agreed to admit them pending reception of satisfactory records from their previous school, everything else should go smoothly from here. They'll bring home a list of the fees which have to be paid, and the medical forms which will need to be filled out. As long as all of that is taken care of, they can start school with everyone else."

On exiting, they said their good-byes to one another. Kasumi and Tofu turned one way to leave the school, while Akane and Ranma went down the hall toward the counselor's office. After about another hour they were fully registered, with almost identical class schedules, and had all of the information which they needed to take home. They calculated that they had just enough time to head home to drop it all off, before they would need to leave to catch the bus to take them to their jobs.

They walked out of the school gates side by side, their hands almost touching. There was a feeling of accomplishment filling them, along with the realization that they were actively looking forward to the start of school.


	5. Confession

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 5. Confession**

As the days passed, they fell into a routine. Akane and Ranma would get up early, to walk over to the dojo to get in some intense training. Hikari-sensei had gone so far as to provide them with keys so that they could go in and practice before he arrived for the day. Ranma made a point of training and sparring in both his male and female forms and so the sensei had soon learned of the boy's curse. Additionally, Ranma was taking his fiancée's training a lot more seriously. They had been discussing the possible reactions of the fiancées to their living together, and Ranma had particularly stressed Shampoo's homicidal nature as well as her high level of skill. While Akane was never particularly willing to admit to Shampoo's superiority over her own skills, she had seized upon this point and demanded his efforts to help her improve. After a heated argument, in which he had trotted out his old excuse about not wanting to hurt any female, she had prevailed. Akane noticed a number of ways in which she had improved after just a few days, and looked happily upon the bruises she received as an emblem of this moral victory.

After their workout, before the first students were due to arrive, they would shower in the dojo's facilities. When they left, they would head home to have breakfast with Kasumi and Tofu, before those two had to leave to go to work. Akane and Ranma spent the morning and early afternoon in various ways, cleaning the apartment, shopping for school supplies and other necessities, and long walks to familiarize themselves with their neighborhood and other areas of the city. Mostly, however, they stayed home while, with Akane's help, Ranma reviewed material he should have learned more thoroughly in school subjects he'd had in previous years.

Mid-afternoon the two teenagers would board the bus to go to their part-time jobs at the medical center and hospital. In the evening they would meet Kasumi and Tofu to drive back home to their apartment. After dinner, Akane and Ranma would again go to the dojo for more practice, and to fulfill their agreement to work out with Saeto Hikari. Tofu and Kasumi would occasionally join them there and do some training as well. Afterward they would go home and relax before bed with some reading or television, with Ranma spending part of the time in female form.

One evening while Ranma was reflecting on how well he and Akane were getting along, he remembered what he had said to her on their walk that first Sunday in the city, and decided that perhaps it was time to deal with that matter. The red-haired girl turned away from the somewhat boring television show he had been watching, and looked over to where his fiancée was reading.

"Akane, could you join me back in your bedroom? There's something that I would like to discuss with you."

Tofu and Akane both raised their eyebrows at that, although Kasumi seemed to take no notice. Wondering what he needed to discuss so suddenly when he had been sitting there doing nothing for the last half hour, Akane nonetheless smiled in agreement, stood up, and walked with him back to her bedroom. She seated herself cross-legged on her futon, while Ranma took up a similar position on Kasumi's. He looked down into his lap for several minutes, clearly getting his thoughts in order.

Becoming impatient, Akane asked mischievously, "Did you just call me in here to watch you contemplate your navel?"

"No! That is, no. Just ... do you remember when we were out walking the other day, and I said I really did need to explain more about why Ryoga and I don't get along? When I said that I was in too good a mood to do so then?"

"No ... oh, wait a minute. Yes. I do remember that. Was there some significance to that comment? I always assumed it was just testosterone that had the two of you quarreling all of the time. But now you're making it sound like there was more than that."

"Yeah, there is, and I need to tell you about it, but I need to tell it right, so please bear with me on this. I should have told you about it a long time ago. But it's going to be really hard for me. So try to be patient, while I slowly get it out. Please. Also, you're going to have every right to be mad about this, well, furious really, and I'll take whatever I've got coming, but please try to hold off until I finish."

"Okayyy." There was a definitely apprehensive note in Akane's voice now.

"To start with, you know what my old man is like. He never met a promise he couldn't break. A lifetime of living with that left scars. I once swore to myself to be his opposite in that respect, so my honor is very important to me, and I never want to break any promise that I make. In a perfect world, I could live up to that ideal, but of course the world is far from perfect. In short, I made a promise, I swore an oath to keep a secret, but that oath was then abused. However, I was so caught up in my ideal of never breaking a promise, that I allowed a situation to develop that I never should have permitted. In so doing, I made the wrong decision, and have no excuse other than my own immaturity. I should have broken my oath and revealed the secret right away."

Akane was looking rather puzzled, as well she might.

"Sorry if I seem to be beating around the bush but this isn't easy for me. I don't ... it's hard for me to go back on my word, even to someone like Ryoga. Anyway, to really explain it, we need to go back to when I was in middle school. Do you remember how I was supposed to meet Ryoga for a duel? That I waited there for three days until my father dragged me off to China, and, of course, Ryoga showed up on the fourth day?"

"Yes, of course I remember all of that. You don't blame yourself, do you? Ryoga forfeited by not showing up at the designated time." She shrugged. "Any reasonable person would agree."

"Yeah, well, try convincing Ryoga of that," Ranma said wryly.

Akane unfolded her legs, preparing to stand. "If that's all you wanted to say, I'm going back to my book."

No, wait! There's more to the story, stuff that I learned after Ryoga showed up in Nerima. You remember the night of the rainstorm after he arrived, when we were fighting out in the yard and you brained him with the dumbbell?"

She settled back into her former position, a little ashamed of herself, remembering. "Yes."

"Well, I had just learned that when Ryoga arrived at the place for our duel and found that I had gone, he followed me. All the way to China. All the way to ... Jusenkyo."

Akane blinked several times. "Are you trying to tell me that Ryoga has a Jusenkyo curse, too?"

Ranma sighed and slowly nodded. "According to his story, he was standing on a cliff when a red-haired girl chasing a panda ran by and knocked him off into a pool. I don't remember anything like that, but I was out of my mind with rage at the time - that would have been before I discovered that I could change back into a boy with hot water. Since Ryoga told me this before he learned of my father's cursed form of a panda bear, I don't see any reason to doubt his story. So I felt kind of like I bear some of the blame for him being cursed."

"Well, maybe a little, by that account," Akane said thoughtfully. "But it's his fault if he followed you there over that stupid bread-feud duel. Not to mention that he was standing so close to the cliff edge or wasn't a good enough martial artist to get out of the way. For that matter, why was he knocked off by your somewhat small girl form, if a giant panda bear hadn't done so?"

Ranma blinked over that thought. "I don't know. I never asked him. But to get on with the story, his cursed form is rather small and weak. He would have a real reason to fear if any enemy knew about it - it would be easy to defeat him just by splashing him with some cold water. So I swore an oath that I would never reveal his curse to anyone."

Ranma sighed again, deeply. "An oath which I am now breaking."

Akane reached an arm across the space between them, and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Ranma, you don't have to tell me any more if you don't want to. I don't see that I need to know any of this. Although, at least now I can understand a little better why Ryoga blames you so much, even if I think he isn't being quite fair to do so."

Ranma grimaced. "No, Akane, I do have to tell you, because there's more. You see ... it's ... God, I knew this was going to be hard. There's part of me that's still demanding that I not say anything more. I should have done this immediately, and I'll be damned if I keep this secret any longer!"

He took another deep breath, gathering his courage.

"Akane. Ryoga's cursed form is a small, black piglet. All of those times that I've called P-chan Ryoga, or vice versa, it wasn't just teasing. Your pet P-chan _is_ Ryoga. The very same night that I swore that oath to keep his secret, he allowed himself to be adopted as your pet pig."

Akane laughed, relaxing back on the bed slightly. "That's a pretty sick joke, Ranma. I mean, after all, Ryoga is my friend. He would never betray me like that. Maybe you," she added while grinning, "but not me."

"I'm afraid it is true," Ranma whispered painfully. "Think. There's that bandanna they both wear, the way they both get lost, the way your pet seems to understand speech and," his voice broke slightly and he had to force himself to continue, "the way he hates me."

It was the pain in his voice, more than his insistent words, that convinced her. Her wide eyes fixed on his face, she shook her head slowly from side to side. "Oh, no. No, no, no!" Akane's voice was trembling. "This isn't funny, Ranma. It's not. ... Please tell me it isn't true. Tell me you're just making this up because you don't like him."

"I'm sorry, Akane," was all that he could say.

With that, the young woman threw herself face down on the covers and burst into tears. "Why? Why didn't you tell me? Because of some stupid oath? You let another man sleep in my bed because you promised to keep a secret? You let him watch me undress because your honor was more important to you than mine? How could you?"

Her words were muffled but their meaning was crystal clear. Akane felt that Ranma had never considered the assault that Ryoga's actions made on her own honor. He'd been too worried about what it meant for his own honor to bother worrying about hers. The hell of it was, that this was precisely true of his initial decisions. He had later come to realize what it would mean for her, but by then had dug himself into a deep pit, and was afraid of bringing about just such a scene as was now happening. Out of a desire to avoid her temper or her tears, he had cowardly avoided the situation. Until now.

"I'm sorry, Akane. I'm really really sorry. Please don't ... don't cry."

"How could you?" she repeated in a heartbroken and heartbreaking wail.

"I don't know!" he answered wildly, almost panicked by the emotional outburst. He'd expected her to get mad and hit him, not to cry like this. He didn't know what to do. "I suppose because I really was an immature baka. At first I was too stupid to think it through. Later I was too scared of how you would react. I never meant to hurt you. Please don't cry."

"Oh, God. You kept this from me. You ... Who else knew? How many people knew about this? How many people were laughing at me behind my back?" She was becoming angry now. Ranma breathed a sigh of relief. If she got angry with him then there was a chance that they would end up fighting, and he felt he could handle that.

"I don't know the answer to that. Other people might have known but been keeping the secret for their own reasons. The Chinese Amazons know, but they're not about to tell _you_ anything. Akari knows, but she might have assumed you already knew about it, and I'm not sure that she knew you were keeping him as a pet. Aside from them, the only other person that I know of is ... your father."

"Daddy?" There was a sound of real horror in her voice. "Daddy knew and didn't stop him? Why?"

"I don't know why. We never discussed it. He probably thought it would make me jealous, which it did, and he may have hoped it would make me do something more definite about our engagement."

"Oh, God, I can't take this." Her voice was getting louder, painfully shrill. "Get out! Just get out right now! Leave me alone."

Ranma stood, feeling like he had ripped his own heart out of his chest. He quietly left the bedroom, and went out into the living room.

"Kasumi?" he said quietly. "I just told Akane something which upset her quite a lot. Could you go back there? I'm not sure that there's anything that you can do, but it will probably help her just to have you there."

At the first call of her name, Kasumi had put her book aside. Now she stood, unhurried, graceful. "Of course, Ranma. But you'd better be prepared to explain later." There was a distinct note of ice in her voice. Ranma shuddered.

"Care to explain to me, Ranma?" Tofu asked, as Kasumi disappeared into the bedroom, from which the men could hear the sounds of Akane crying.

Ranma shook his head. "I just broke an oath in order to tell Akane what I did, and it nearly killed me to do it. I can't ... I couldn't bear to do it again. She'll probably tell Kasumi. Ask one of them. Please."

Ranma sat down and started watching the television again, although he retained no memory of the show afterward.

* * *

Back in the bedroom, Kasumi held Akane until her sobs quieted enough for her to tearfully relate the story which Ranma had told her. The only information which Akane withheld was the knowledge of her father's betrayal, as it was too painful to discuss and she didn't wish to burden her sister with it. Kasumi was honestly shocked that Ryoga could have treated her younger sister so dishonorably; he had always seemed like such a nice young man. She was also somewhat disappointed with Ranma, but understood him perhaps a bit better than Akane did.

"Why, Kasumi? Why didn't he tell me? Why did he allow something like that to go on for so long? Did he really care so little about me?"

"I'm sure that he cares a great deal for you, Akane. But in this matter I think that he was ... very confused. I think that he found himself in a situation where he didn't know what to do."

"He should have told me! I would have told him! That's what any normal person would have done. Only a total idiot would keep such a secret!"

Kasumi sighed, then shook her head at her younger sister, frowning slightly. "But Ranma isn't you, Akane." Ignoring the muffled comment of bitter agreement, she continued, speaking hesitantly as she felt her way to the words that would express what she felt without further hurting the younger girl. "You always do that, you know. Judge Ranma by what you would do, by how you feel, by what you think he's thinking. You don't try to look at things from his point of view, to get inside of his head."

"His head is so big that if I tried to get inside of it I'd get lost," Akane replied with some heat. "It shouldn't matter, Kasumi. There's a right way to behave and a wrong way, and he usually picks the wrong way!"

"That's not true, and I believe you are deliberately missing my point. Think about it Akane. Ranma has had a very hard life, raised by an abusive and incompetent father. When he first arrived at our home, he was insensitive, arrogant, childish, and knew nothing about interacting with other people. His social skills were, to put it bluntly, primitive to nonexistent. Try to remember what he was like then, and compare that young man to who he is now. Ranma has grown up a great deal since then, although he does still have a ways to go, not surprisingly considering his starting point.

"I am not at all surprised that the young man he was then would decide to keep this secret from you in order not to break his oath. Everything he knows about honor comes from observing what his father is not. And since his father breaks his word nearly every time he opens his mouth, Ranma sees it as overwhelmingly important never to break a promise. I am a little disappointed, but find it very predictable that he would initially choose to keep this from you rather than go back on his word. After that, it probably became habit to keep the secret. Try to remember that he has finally done the right thing, that he decided, on his own with no prompting from anyone else, to reveal the truth to you. I saw the look on his face when he came out of this room; he fears what your reaction to him might be over this, and yet he told you anyway.

"And now I have to wonder if he truly wanted to keep this secret even at the start. He dropped lots of hints, didn't he? Aside from making pig-related insults about Hibiki, didn't he even directly call that young man P-chan right in front of us, and use the name Ryoga for your pet pig? Didn't he talk about P-chan's sense of direction as if it were as bad as Hibiki's."

Akane got a thoughtful look in her eyes. Speaking haltingly, she related, "That first night I adopted P-chan, I woke up to find Ranma lying on top of me, with a kettle in his hand. I called him a pervert and knocked him out of the window, but now that I know the truth about P-chan, I have to wonder why Ranma had a kettle with him. He didn't need it for himself - he was already male. I wonder if he was planning to pour it on P-chan to change him back, knowing that that would force him to leave my room."

"It's possible," Kasumi agreed, "although you could always ask the person who knows best."

"I'm not ready to talk with him yet," Akane said coldly then softened and sighed. "I think you may be right about some of the things you've said, and I guess that I'll probably forgive him some day, but I can't yet." Her voice became even colder. "Ryoga, on the other hand, is going to regret this very, very deeply, the next time I see him."

"I fully agree with you there," Kasumi added. "We will need to consider carefully how to best make him realize just how serious his transgressions are."

Akane nodded, new tears forming in her eyes. "You know, I'm still realizing the full extent of his betrayal. I whispered most of my secrets into P-chan's ears. He has violated me more thoroughly than if he read my diary. Also, I can remember several incidents where he or Ranma's other fiancées knew things that I thought only I knew, and used them against Ranma. Now I realize that I told those secrets to P-chan and he must have turned around and used that knowledge or given it to the other girls to use." Her hands had slowly clenched into tight fists as she spoke, her voice roughening. Now she growled, "I swear I'm going to geld that bastard when I see him next!"

"Akane, language!" She softened the reprimand immediately with the admission, "Although I admit that I sympathize with the sentiment entirely."

The two lapsed into silence. Akane took comfort in the embrace of her older sister, while the occasional tear continued to slide down her cheek.

* * *

The next morning, Akane emerged from her room at the usual time to join Ranma for their practice in the dojo. He eyed her warily, waiting for her to make the first move, but she barely acknowledged his presence, and they left the apartment in silence. After entering the dojo, Akane stopped short, forcing Ranma to turn to face her.

"Okay, buster, we need to talk before we start. It's not going to do us any good to work out with this stuff lying between us."

Ranma rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "You're right about that."

Akane regarded him closely through narrowed eyes, then looked away, shaking her head and sighing sadly. "Okay, I think I may understand why you made the promise in the first place but I don't understand at all why you kept it when you saw what he was doing! You should have told me right off." Ranma winced then nodded, reluctantly. Akane drew in a quick hurt breath at his reaction. "You should have!" she insisted hotly. This time there was no hesitation. Ranma nodded. Satisfied, Akane nodded back and continued the speech she had practiced in her head through the long sleepless night.

"Like I said, I think I understand why you made that promise and even, a little, why you felt you had to keep it. Because it touched your honor, even though Hibiki proved he was lacking in all honor himself. And you did try to let me know, all the hints you dropped. But when all is said and done, you were still wrong not to tell me right away, and you'd better understand that!"

Ranma nodded again in solemn agreement.

Akane sighed deeply. Looking at the floor off to one side, speaking almost to herself, she continued. "I'm a bit upset with myself for never having figured it out. In retrospect, it was all pretty obvious, and I'm feeling pretty stupid." Her head shot up quickly, looking to stave off any agreement he might be stupid enough to make, and she spoke a direct warning to him. "Which only makes me feel more mad." Ranma spread his hands in surrender, conceding the point. Akane winced, realizing that she'd done it again, what Kasumi had said she did, reacting to what she thought Ranma might be thinking instead of what he was saying. Or in this case, not saying. She grimaced in apology and went on in a softer voice. "I am proud of you for finally doing the right thing and telling me the truth, especially knowing how I was likely to react. I'm still mad at you, but I'll get over that.

"One more thing though. You will swear an oath to me, right now, that you will never keep something like this from me again."

Ranma swallowed. "I swear that I will never again keep a secret from you that affects your honor or mine."

Akane studied him closely for several seconds. "Why did you phrase it that way?"

Ranma twisted his pigtail around a finger, his mouth wry. "Well, I've got to be able to keep some secrets from you. Birthday presents, things like that."

She nodded, accepting his amendment. "Okay. But ... you don't have any other secrets you're keeping from me right now?"

"None that I know of. I swear it, on my honor."

Akane sighed. "Okay then. I guess ... I'll forgive you this time. But I won't forget. Not yet." She started to move out onto the floor, then stopped and turned back. "But, one more thing. That first night that I adopted P-chan, when I woke up to find you lying on top of me, and assumed you were just being a pervert. You were just trying to change him back, weren't you? And being clumsy?"

Ranma gave a lopsided grin and blushed, unable to meet her eyes, remembering the feel of her body underneath his that night. "Well, that bastard was sleeping in your room with you, and I didn't want him to. I should have told you the truth, but we've already gone over that. So I slipped into your room with a kettle of hot water, intending to pour it on him. I figured if I changed him back to human, a naked guy at that, or even just threatened it, then he'd have no choice but to run for it. Only problem is that I didn't manage to take him by surprise and the little porker proved more agile than I was counting on. We fought, and although he was getting the worst of it, at one point he managed to knock me down. Well, I fell on top of you, which naturally woke you up, and you know what happened after that."

Akane nodded. "I'm sorry I called you a pervert about that incident, although you deserved it for being so stupid about all of this." This time she did walk out into the middle of the floor, and mentally prepared herself to mete out punishment. "So, how about some sparring, sensei?"

Ranma shook his head. "I don't think so, not yet. Emotions are still a bit too high. Let's do a little meditation first, then some katas. After that we should be calm enough to do some sparring, if we still have time."

She agreed, and the two of them sat down facing one another, prepared to start their meditation.

* * *

The following morning, Akane and Ranma were walking through a park a little before lunch. They paused on a footbridge over a small stream, and while they stood watching the water gurgling over the rocks Ranma was struck by a sudden thought. He glanced over at Akane, who was leaning on the railing, enrapt in the play of light on the ripples.

"Akane, these walks we've been taking, do they count as dates?"

The girl stiffened slightly as she considered the thought, then relaxed, slowly standing upright even though she kept her eyes on the stream. "Um, well, sort of I suppose, maybe. I mean, they're not really what most people would think of as dates. Why?"

"Well, we've talked about how we sort of, maybe, you know, kinda love ... like one another, and we'd like to get to know one another better, but we've never been on any official dates. I was thinking that maybe we ought to. So, um, would you like to go out tomorrow night? See a movie, maybe go out to eat?"

Akane looked up at him, and smiled that beautiful smile. "Yes. I think I'd like that. Why tomorrow? Why not tonight?"

"Oh, just wasn't sure if Kasumi might already have plans about supper tonight. Besides, tomorrow is Friday, and Friday night seems a little more traditional for a first date. Also, there's a new martial arts movie starting tomorrow that I want to see."

"You mean the new Jet Li movie? Oh, I'd love to see that one. And I suppose Tofu will be back from Tokyo in time for dinner, so Kasumi won't have to eat all by herself."

Ranma smacked himself in the head. "I completely forgot that he said he was leaving tonight to go down to that conference tomorrow morning. Are you sure he'll be back in time?"

"He said he'd be back by six o'clock, so there shouldn't be a problem."

"So, tomorrow night then?"

"Yep." She chuckled, "It's a date."

* * *

Friday morning arrived with sunny, beautiful weather. Akane and Ranma were preparing to go out to do some shopping, but just as they were about to head out the door, the telephone rang. Ranma answered it. "Hello?"

"Hello, is this Saotome-san?"

"Yes it is."

"Good, this is Principal Bansui at the high school. I am calling to let you know that your school records from Furinkan arrived, so you're all set in that regard. The reason I am calling in person, rather than leaving it to a secretary, is because I looked over those records. Although Tendo-san's grades are quite reasonable, I was less impressed by your own results. I want some reassurance that you intend to devote yourself to your studies more strongly than the evidence suggests you have in the past."

Ranma, breaking out into a sweat, swallowed heavily. The implication was obvious. The principal would have to be satisfied on this point before they, or rather he, would be allowed to join the student body at the new school.

"Yes sir, I have every intention of doing so. In fact, I've already started reviewing some of the stuff from last year, trying to get caught up before this year begins. I'm hoping to get into college next year, and I know I have to do better than I have before, sir."

"Very good, I'm glad to hear it. I plan to keep a close eye on you, young man."

"Yes sir, I won't let you down, I promise."

"Okay then, good-bye."

"Good-bye sir." The principal hung up the telephone.

"Who was that? Was that the school, Ranma?"

Ranma realized that he was standing there listening to a dial tone. He replaced the handset carefully before answering. "Yeah, Principal Bansui. He was calling to let us know that they got our records from Furinkan." He decided he didn't need to tell her the rest. He was right, there was no need. She guessed it.

Akane smiled. "I bet he called just to make sure he wasn't making a mistake by letting you in."

"Yeah, well ... yeah. Hopefully I've reassured him a little."

Akane laughed. "Considering the grades you got, you should have aimed to reassure him a lot."

Ranma stuck his tongue out at her, then they left on their shopping trip. They had planned to visit the clothing store which the guidance counselor had recommended to them for their school uniforms, even before they knew that they were officially in. Now they felt justified in doing so.

"So Ranma," Akane asked brightly, "are you planning to buy uniforms for both genders, or just the guys' stuff?"

Ranma growled, giving her a dirty look. "Just the guys' of course. If I have anything to say about it, the students here will never know about my curse. I certainly don't intend to come to school as a girl that nobody has ever met."

Akane smirked, amused by his show of temper. "I suppose you know how likely you are to succeed at that?" She paused, her brow wrinkling in a quick frown. "Actually, now that I think about it, I'm pretty amazed at how seldom you've changed by accident the last few weeks; your idea about spending a little time as a girl each night seems to be paying off. Still, I don't think you have any chance at all of keeping that up the whole school year. Why not just announce it the first day of class and get it over with?"

"Look, Akane, you may have gotten used to my curse, but other people haven't. I don't want people looking at me like a freak if I can help it. I'll keep it a secret as long as I can, and only explain if and when I have to."

She decided to stop baiting him. After all, she was no more anxious than he for the other students to know about his curse. "All right, Ranma, all right. I'm sorry I was teasing you, and I'll help you keep it a secret as much as I can."

"Thanks. Still, talking about women's clothes, I probably ought to buy some. Not school uniforms, but some everyday stuff." He added with a scowl, "Including underclothes." He then went on, "It does seem like I sometimes end up needing that sort of thing, and most of what I have is stuff my mom insisted on buying that's too frilly and ... stuff. I wouldn't be comfortable wearing it. Would you, um, help me pick some stuff out that looks good but isn't too cutesy or anything?"

Akane smiled gently, knowing what such a request cost him. "Sure Ranma, I'll be happy to help."

In the store it didn't take them long to find the school uniforms, and they bought several sets each. Privately, Ranma thought that the dark blue color would suit Akane better than the old Furinkan uniforms had. Ranma then splashed himself at a water fountain, and the two girls went to look at the other clothing. They each selected a couple of pairs of jeans, as well as a couple of shirts and a dress for Ranma. He was a bit embarrassed trying them on, especially stepping out of the dressing room to show Akane how they looked, but he survived the ordeal.

They next went over to look at the underwear, and selected some plain white panties for Ranma. They encountered a stumbling block, however, with the bras.

"What do you mean, you don't know your bra size, Ranma?" Akane asked, bemusedly. "I thought you said your mother had bought you several, even if they are a bit too 'girly'."

"Owning them isn't the same as knowing what size they are. I never looked."

Akane shook her head, then went to find a store clerk, and borrowed a tape measure. "Come on back into the dressing room with me, Ranma. I'll measure you and we'll get your size."

They went back into one of the dressing rooms together, where Ranma, blushing slightly, pulled off the Chinese shirt he was wearing. This left the redheaded girl standing there topless.

"Okay, Ranma. Lift your arms so that I can take the measurements. Let's see. 95 cm. And here. Umm. Okay, looks like your size is 95D. You can put your shirt back on now."

Akane paused, then turned rather red. "Could you leave me alone in here for a few minutes, Ranma?"

"Huh? What is it Akane? Is something wrong?"

"No. Nothing's wrong. It's just, um, ..." She was turning even redder. "Lately, my own bras have been feeling too tight. I want to check my own measurements."

"Oh. Um, sorry I pried." Ranma left hastily.

A few minutes later, Akane walked out, still blushing. They headed back over to the underwear section, and she helped him to pick out some bras in the correct size which should provide enough support for his overly endowed figure. She then reached out and grabbed several new bras for herself, rather self-consciously. Ranma looked the other way, but not before noting that the ones she was taking were marked 90B. He found that he couldn't stop himself from wondering if it was the 90, the B, or both which represented an increase.

* * *

That night, Akane and Ranma enjoyed a dinner at a quiet restaurant which had been recommended by Tofu. They talked about some of the events they had survived together back in Nerima, sharing what things had looked like from the other person's perspective, and also discussed the upcoming school term. After a very enjoyable meal, they went to the theater and settled in to watch the movie. A little while after the lights went down, Ranma put his arm around Akane and she leaned into him, and they stayed like that until the credits rolled at the end.

They both felt that it had been a wonderful date, and not the least of the reasons was a total absence of Amazons, chefs and gymnasts. They walked all the way home with his arm around her shoulders, at least until they were a couple of doors down when a passing car splashed them, so that they arrived home as two rather damp girls.

Kasumi smiled to herself as Akane came into their bedroom humming, practically dancing as she undressed and changed into her pajamas. She kept quiet however, determined to allow the couple to have the privacy which they had gone to such lengths to attain.


	6. Interlude

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 6. Interlude**

On Saturday morning, Ranma came back into the bedroom from brushing his teeth, and saw his roommate just getting out of bed. The older man looked rather tired.

"Hey doc. How was Tokyo?"

"Good morning Ranma. The conference was very interesting, and I met a lot of old friends. Also, as long as I was in the neighborhood, I decided to go by and pick up copies of the girls' records from their gynecologist, in order to give them to the one they'll use here in Sendai - I already have someone in mind for that. That means the records won't have to be mailed here, so no one will know where they went. Their Tokyo doctor is an acquaintance of mine, and I asked him not to let anyone know that he gave me copies, so hopefully we cannot be tracked through him. Unfortunately, their doctor did not know of you, and I am not sure that I ever knew the name of your own g-y-n. So I was unable to do the same for your records."

"Um, doc, I don't even know what a ... gee-why-an is."

Tofu looked nonplused. "It's a doctor who specializes in the care and treatment of the female reproductive organs."

"Oh!" Ranma exclaimed in enlightenment. "One of those!" He gave a small shudder and said, "I don't need one of them. I'm a guy."

"Not when you get wet," Tofu responded in exasperation. "However, we can argue about that later. If I don't get moving, I'll miss my chance in the bathroom." He left the bedroom to begin his own morning rituals. Back in their room, Ranma was remembering how Akane once mentioned the possibility of being tracked through their school records, back when they were planning this escapade. The germ of an idea started growing within him, in connection with the telephone call he had received the previous day.

* * *

That afternoon, Akane was near the end of her shift at the hospital when the telephone rang.

"Hello? This is Akane Tendo."

"Hi 'kane, it's Ranma. I've got to go somewhere after work, so you'll have to catch the bus back by yourself. I'll explain as soon as I see you again, which will probably be sometime tomorrow."

"What? Where are you going? What's going on?"

"I'll explain tomorrow. Bye!"

The phone went dead.

"That baka! I'm going to wring his neck tomorrow!"

* * *

Much later that night, a pigtailed figure wearing dark clothes was making its way through the streets of Nerima, hoping that it was passing unobserved. After a slow and careful progress, it arrived at its destination: the gates of Furinkan High School.

‹Okay, first half is done. I got here, apparently without being observed.›

The wall around the school campus was quickly scaled, and he dropped to the ground on the other side. Approximately half an hour was then spent creeping along the building itself, but eventually an unlocked window was discovered, and Ranma was inside.

‹Home Ec classroom. Site of many disasters. Heh. Now to get down to the office.›

A few minutes later the young man was picking the lock of the door leading into the school office, thankful for once for the lessons taught by a less-than-honorable father. Another minute and the door swung open, after which he made his way over to the files marked 'S' and 'T'.

‹Okay, here we are, 'Saotome, Ranma.' A notice that a copy of the records were mailed to Masamune High School in Sendai.› He pulled the piece of paper out of the file, folded it, and shoved it into a pocket. He opened the other folder. ‹Likewise in the file marked 'Tendo, Akane.'› With both forms now in his pocket, the only link to where those records had been sent was in the memory of an overworked secretary. With any luck, no one would be asking her about them before the memory disappeared under the mountain of other details she had to deal with on a daily basis.

The files were put back, looking untouched. He was careful to lock the office door behind him, and to close the window of the Home Ec classroom after he slipped out again. He paused before scaling the outer wall again to extend his senses to try to determine if any potential witnesses were around on the outside.

‹Okay, up and over, and back to the train station. Sleep on the roof overnight, a bit uncomfortable, and then catch the train back in the morning. Hope nobody recognizes me in my disguise at the station in the morning. At least nobody should be asking questions about the possibility of my boarding the train tomorrow, since we're known to have left a week and a half ago, and I don't have to buy any tickets since I paid for the round trip back in Sendai.›

The figure settled down on the roof to spend a cold and restless night.

‹I got a feeling that Akane's gonna be really pissed with me, tomorrow. But she'll understand once I explain. I hope.› Somehow his mental voice did not sound as convincing as he would have liked. It was a very long night.

* * *

The front door of the apartment was torn out of his grip before he could even finish opening it.

"Ranma! Where have you been!"

"Oh, hi, Akane. Do you mind if I have a bite to eat first? I've only had a couple of light snacks that I was able to carry with me, since lunch yesterday."

Akane shoved him into a seat at the table. She grabbed a carrot out of the refrigerator and tossed it to him, while Tofu and Kasumi watched with amusement from the living room.

"Here, this will take the edge off. Now start talking, mister!"

"Em. Heh-heh, okay." Chomp. "Well, you remember that the school got our records from Furinkan, right? But I recalled how you once said that people might be able to track us through our school records. So I got to thinking. The only thing anyone could find would be a single notice added to our files in Nerima, saying where the records were sent. That, and the possibility that the secretary who mailed them might remember where she sent them. You remember that old biddy, right? Give her a week, and she won't even remember our names, let alone the name of a school or city that probably didn't occupy her attention for more than five minutes.

"So I caught a train down to Nerima, broke into the high school last night, and removed the information on where our school records were sent."

Tofu looked at him with something between awe and disgust. "You do realize that that is called burglary, Ranma? It's not something people tend to be too forgiving about."

Akane was staring at him, aghast. "What if you'd been caught? Forget the police! What if Ukyo, Shampoo, Cologne or one of the Kuno's spotted you and decided to follow you? You could have led them right here!"

"Give me a little credit, Akane! It was late at night when few people were around. I used the Umisen-ken, and kept an eye out for anyone who might have spotted me. If I had been spotted, I was prepared to lead them on a wild goose chase. I spent last night on the roof of the train station so I wouldn't have to walk through the streets this morning. I was careful!"

"Careful? You?" she scoffed. "With the kind of luck you have, it might not matter how careful you tried to be!"

"Look, it's done. I did it. No one saw me. No one followed me. Now let it drop! I'm going to get cleaned up if you don't mind." Without waiting for a response, he jumped up from the table and stormed down the hallway to his room. Akane followed.

"I do mind!" she shouted angrily, slamming the door shut behind her and spinning around to push the astonished boy down onto Tofu's bed. She stood there glaring down at him.

"Okay, if this was such a great idea, why didn't you discuss it with me? Why did you sneak off without me? You didn't think that I'd be willing to help? Or you just couldn't bear the thought of having my help?"

"No! I didn't want to argue about it, and it would have been a mistake for you to come along. As you yourself rightly pointed out, there was a strong risk of discovery, and that risk would have been a lot higher with two people! Besides, I haven't trained you in the Umisen-ken yet, so you couldn't have used it to avoid being seen!"

Akane fumed. "Okay, I'll grant you that. And maybe you're right that if it was going to be done at all, then it was best that you do it alone. But that doesn't change the fact that you made this decision on your own without consulting me! Without talking to me about it at all. When I think of us together, I think just that. 'Together.' As in partners. I have no intention of ever being some trophy that you keep back at the house, with no voice in the decisions that affect both of our lives!"

Ranma looked down at the floor, ashamed. "Um, you're right. I'm sorry. I just hated the idea of arguing with you so much that I decided to just go and do it, and tell you afterward. I suppose that was pretty selfish. I should have discussed it with you, even if that meant we did argue, rather than hurting your feelings by making a decision without consulting you."

Akane closed her eyes, and let out a hissing breath. "Ranma, if we're going to make this work, then you need to grow up and start treating me as an equal. You can't keep screwing up, then saying that you're sorry, and expecting that that's always going to solve everything. You need to start thinking in terms of 'us', not just 'you', or else there's not going to be any 'us'."

She looked at him pleadingly. "Please try to understand this, baka, because it's important, and I would like to have a chance at there being an 'us'."

"I understand, Akane. I'll try, I promise. No more making decisions by myself about anything that affects both of us."

She sighed, and looked down at him with fond exasperation. "Okay, Ranma. It sounds like it may have worked out this time, so we'll forget about it. Next time, however, the mallet comes back out!"

Ranma shuddered.

* * *

The next morning at breakfast, Akane saw an ad in the newspaper for a new restaurant which had just opened down the street from the dojo. According to the ad, it also had a dance floor. She sighed reminiscently as she remembered a school dance that had been fun in middle school - she hadn't really had any opportunities to enjoy dancing since then. She looked speculatively over at Ranma. She wanted to get over the last of the hurt left from the previous day's argument, and thought gleefully of how to both do that and 'punish' him at the same time. She started to make puppy dog eyes at her fiancé.

"Oh, Raaanmaaa. I enjoyed our last date so much, how about if we go out again tonight? Hmm?"

Of course, every alarm bell in Ranma's head went gone off. At the same time, he found it very hard to ignore that look. He glanced down at the ad under his fiancée's tapping finger.

"You want to go to that restaurant to eat tonight? Um, sure, that sounds great. What do they serve?"

"Who cares? They've got a dance floor and a live band! Will you dance with me while we're there, Ranma? Pleeeaaase?" She batted her eyelashes at him, in much the same way that onna-Ranma would when trying to get extra scoops of ice cream.

"Oh, jeez." Yep, the alarm bells had been correct. Ranma fiddled with his pigtail, trying to figure a way out of this dilemma, but the eyelashes worked just as well on him as they did on the guy serving the ice cream. "Okay, Akane, you win. I'll dance with you. I bet I won't be any good, though."

"Thanks, Ranma! It'll be great! You'll see." Akane was beaming at him happily.

Kasumi giggled at her younger sister's antics. She then looked to her right and batted her eyelashes in Tofu's direction. "So, Tofu, when are you going to ask me out somewhere?" she cooed.

The young doctor's collar suddenly felt very tight, and all of the tugging in the world did nothing to loosen it. "Well, umm, ha-ha, how about tonight? Since Akane and Ranma will be out anyway? I wouldn't want to intrude on them, but would you like to go out to that restaurant they went to last Friday, and maybe see a movie afterward?"

Kasumi looked up at him from under her lashes, well pleased with his reaction. "That sounds very nice, Tofu. I'll look forward to it."

* * *

That night, Ranma discovered just how enjoyable dancing could be, with the right partner. In no small part this was because it gave him the perfect excuse to hold his fiancée with no one yelling "Pervert!" at him for doing so. He felt like he was in heaven during the dances where he was able to put his arms around her and hold her closely, feeling her curves pressed against him.

They returned home before Kasumi and Tofu, as they realized when they closed the door, standing just inside the dark apartment. There was only a little bit of illumination in the room, from some light coming in through the window. Ranma turned to Akane and held her close, while she put her arms over his shoulders and around the back of his neck, and they looked into each other's eyes.

"I had a wonderful time tonight, Ranma," Akane said softly.

"So did I," Ranma said, equally softly. "I think that I could really get used to going out on dates with you. Um, this was an official date, and we both seem to be the right genders this time. Don't dates often end with a kiss?"

"Mmm-hmmm," she purred.

Ranma slowly bent his head down toward hers, until their lips brushed. She pressed her lips back into his, and he tightened his arms almost involuntarily. It felt as if a dam collapsed, releasing a flood of electricity surging through their veins. They were each reveling in the feeling of the other's body pressed against their own. A couple of minutes later they realized that they were both moaning softly, and broke the kiss with a little bit of embarrassment. At that point Ranma realized he had another reaction to the close contact and as closely as they were pressed together that Akane would hardly be able to avoid noticing it as well. At the same time that he realized this, Akane did in fact notice, although she wasn't quite sure how to react in turn, except to be glad that she was female and that her own response was not quite as noticeable.

They gradually released one another, still looking with wonder into each other's eyes.

"Um, that was, that was ... I don't think I've ever felt anything quite that wonderful before, Akane."

"Ranma, surely you've been kissed before, the way some of the other girls would hang all over you?"

"There's a world of difference between having a pair of lips pressed against you when you don't want it, and sharing a kiss with someone as wonderful as you. There's no comparison."

Akane felt herself blushing in the darkness. "Thank you, Ranma. I thought it was pretty wonderful myself."

After a few more minutes of gazing at one another, they began to realize that it didn't make any sense to stand frozen in front of the apartment door all night. By mutual consent they moved apart, but her left hand slipped into his right hand and held it. Neither seemed quite sure what to do next. Akane looked over in the living room and said, "Do you want to watch some TV?"

Ranma shrugged. "Yeah, sure." Together they walked over and sat on the couch, still holding hands. Ranma used the remote to flip through channels until they settled on a detective show which was just starting. Akane leaned in against him.

When Kasumi and Tofu returned from their movie, the two teenagers were sitting on the couch watching the program's credits roll, but with Ranma's arm now around Akane's shoulders. Before the door opened, they heard the murmur of Tofu speaking in the hallway and Kasumi giggling like a schoolgirl. They could just make out her voice saying "stop it" in a cheerfully protesting voice. When the older man walked in, he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat, and had his arm around his date's waist. He stopped short when he became aware of the two on the couch watching them. His face went through a comical shift from giddy to nervous to composed.

"Ahem. Ah, Akane and Ranma. I thought the two of you ... that is ... I hope you had a nice time tonight."

"Yes, we really enjoyed our date," Akane replied primly, eyeing her older sister questioningly. Kasumi smiled at the unspoken criticism and shrugged, unrepentant.

"Good, excellent. It has indeed been a wonderful night." He smiled down at Kasumi, getting lost in her eyes as she returned his smile, gazing up at him. For a brief moment, he seemed to regain the giddiness he'd had when he'd come in. Then he sighed, and his eyes seemed to refocus, taking in the other occupants of the room once more. He spent a moment chasing down a stray thought, and then remembered it.

"Ah, I just remembered some things I wanted to discuss with all of you," he announced. "I meant to do so after work, but in the flurry of preparing for our dates, I forgot."

Kasumi sat in the chair, while Ranma turned off the television before Tofu took up position in front of it. His stance seemed to shift in some indefinable way into something more professional, as if he were in one of his examination rooms. The other three all turned quizzical looks onto the doctor.

"Ah, well. First I wanted to inform you that I've scheduled the physical exams you need for school, Ranma, Akane. You should come by my clinic Wednesday morning, at 10:00."

The couple on the couch nodded at him. This news was not unexpected.

"Additionally, since you're all going to be living here for the next year, I felt it advisable to schedule gynecological appointments for the ladies. There is a doctor of that specialty whom I have come to know fairly well and who is a colleague at the medical center, so I took the liberty of scheduling appointments with her for the three of you starting at 11:00 Wednesday, after your physicals with me."

Everyone was now staring at him in shock. This news, on the other hand, _was_ unexpected.

"Tofu Ono." Kasumi's voice held a dangerous note. "Would you care to explain how you felt it appropriate to go behind my back and make such an appointment for my sister and myself without consulting me?"

"Um, well ..." The doctor looked to once side briefly, the angry flash of her eyes shaking his composure. Then he squared his shoulders and met her gaze full on. "I guess ... I didn't really think I needed to. All of that time as your personal physician, I suppose I'm a little accustomed to making decisions about your medical needs."

Kasumi's eyes had a look which said that this _was_ going to be discussed at greater length later, in private. However, all she said for the moment was, "Very well. You are correct that it would be appropriate to have such examinations, and you are the one who knows the local physicians. We will keep the appointments, although, in future, you had better remember to check with me first."

Ranma raised his hand for attention. "Excuse me. Did you say ... the three of us?" There was a note of real horror in his voice. Tofu seemed happy to be distracted from Kasumi's unanticipated reaction. He turned to Ranma with a smile of relief.

"Yes, Ranma, the three of you. It is high time that you had such an examination, particularly with regard to potential complications arising from your inescapable change of genders. I've explained the nature of your curse to her," he paused as the memory of her reaction turned the corners of his mouth upward, "although of course she is going to require a demonstration before she fully accepts that I am not pulling her leg."

"Oh, God. Is this some sort of weird revenge for my not warning you that Kasumi was coming here with us? I told you that I didn't know ahead of time that she was going to do that."

Akane giggled at his discomfiture, although she was feeling no small amount of trepidation about her own announced appointment. Her memory of previous such examinations were ones she preferred not to dwell on. However, she knew that Tofu was right that Ranma ought to do this, so despite her own feelings about the highhanded way their roommate had done this behind their backs, she decided to support him. She still gave the doctor a brief dirty look, but then turned to the boy beside her with a wan smile. "Come on, Ranma, you'll survive it," she cajoled him. "After all, you wouldn't want me to think that you couldn't face something that I can deal with, huh?"

"That's a low blow, tomboy," he said, almost too quietly to hear. Akane just looked at him beseechingly, and gave his hand a squeeze.

Tofu was pleased with the effect that Akane's words seemed to have a Ranma, although he was feeling increasingly nervous about the looks which he himself was getting. Nonetheless, he cleared his throat for attention, indication that he was not quite finished.

"Additionally, I, um, um, ahhh ..." His face started turning quite red. "I suggested to Doctor Shirayuri that she discuss contraception with all of you, particularly with ... um, Kasumi and Akane."

"Doctor Tofu!" Akane cried out in shock. Ranma convulsively squeezed Akane's hand much more tightly, mutely staring at Tofu in terror. Kasumi stood up, holding herself very rigid and lifting her chin to an angle of outraged dignity. Her peaceful facade had shattered completely.

"Tofu-san, you have exceeded yourself," the older sister spoke in frigid tones. "Just exactly what is going on inside of that empty skull of yours? First you make these appointments without consulting us, without even bothering to find out if they are at convenient times or whether we have made other plans, and now this? Do you truly believe that because my sister and I are sharing an apartment with you and Ranma, that we are going to behave with complete impropriety? How dare you imply such a thing?"

‹I never thought that I'd hear Kasumi say something like that,› Ranma thought. ‹She must be really upset. Akane, on the other hand, looks more frightened than upset, I think›

Tofu shrank back, almost falling against the television, but rallied himself immediately and faced her. "In the first place, I only said that I suggested that she discuss the subject. I definitely have not asked her to try to talk you into anything. In the second place, I am certainly not expecting anything to take place which would require the use of contraception, or anything even remotely close to it at any point in the near future.

"On the other hand, I am a doctor, and it has been my unfortunate experience to witness the results of a lack of planning too often for me to be comfortable ignoring the possibilities inherent in our situation here. There are two couples with romantic feelings for one another, living together under this roof. At least, I hope that the feelings are mutual," he added, with a pleading look in Kasumi's direction. She gazed back coldly, and he winced and continued. "It would be inexcusable for me to ignore the possibility that, at some future time, emotions might run high and common sense be thrown to the winds. I thought that by arranging for the matter to be discussed now, when nothing is likely to occur, we might be able to avoid an embarrassing situation later.

"In conclusion, my only intention was to make sure that you, both of you, were fully aware of your options." He finished with an air of confidence, which was undermined by a hint of worry in his eyes.

Kasumi had calmed somewhat during this speech. While she might agree with his arguments and even with his intentions, she was not prepared to forgive him for the fashion in which he had gone about this. Without saying a word, she stood up and left the room. Throughout Tofu's speech, Akane and Ranma had found it increasingly impossible to look at one another. When Kasumi stood, Akane immediately bounced to her feet and followed her sister. Ranma slowly stood as well, gave the unhappy doctor a thoroughly disgusted look, and also left. Tofu miserably fell into the chair which Kasumi had vacated and sat there, slumped and alone, for long after the other three had gone to their beds, wondering just where it was that his plans had gone wrong.

* * *

The following morning, Akane and Ranma were sitting at the table, with books and papers scattered around them, taking a break between reviewing English and mathematics. They were also scarfing down a plateful of cookies which Kasumi had baked the day before.

Ranma's thoughts had turned from the academic issues of attending school, to the other students whom they would soon meet. He looked up with a cookie in each hand, and spoke semi-intelligibly around the cookie in his mouth. "So, um, Akane. What do you want to tell the other kids at school about us?"

"About us?" Akane queried warily. "What do you mean by that, Ranma? Do you mean all of the stuff that happened to us at Furinkan, or things like Jusendo? I'd rather not tell them any of that, at all, if you don't mind." She rested her chin on her hands wearily and sighed. "I'd like them to think we're not too far outside the bounds of being normal."

"Huh! And you were the one who advised me to tell them about my curse on the first day!" he reminded her pointedly. Akane picked up the mathematics book to menace him and he drew back, laughing. "But no, what I actually meant was, what do you want to tell them about us? You and me. Our relationship. Do we tell them that we're engaged? Or that we're boyfriend and girlfriend? Or what? I've gotta admit, I want to tell them something. I don't want to pretend that we're not close, and I sure as hell don't want any of the guys trying to ask you out on a date!"

"Hmph. Don't be such a possessive baka, baka." She considered. "I'm not interested in going out on dates with anyone else right now." Her gaze sharpened on him. "And you'd better not be interested in going out with anyone else either, for that matter."

"Don't be such a possessive baka yourself, Akane," he teased. This time he did get bopped with the book, but it was a far cry from the mallet blows to which he had become accustomed.

Akane set the mathematics book down with a disgusted look for its lack of effect. She nervously munched on another cookie while she thought some more, then said, "I hadn't really thought about it, but I would like to avoid the whole engagement and arranged marriage explanation, if possible. Would it be okay to sort of let people know that we're boyfriend and girlfriend, that we're kind of serious about one another and that's all?"

"Sure, that sounds fine to me. I just wanted to make sure we had our story straight before we started school and had to start answering questions. After all, we don't want to trip each other up about that stuff. I'm sure that rumors here get just as bad as they ever did at Furinkan."

Akane nodded in emphatic agreement. "I'm sure you're right, and it's a good idea to decide what we will and won't tell them, but we're supposed to be focusing on reviewing academics this morning. What do you say we discuss this some time tomorrow? After we've both had a chance to really think about it."

"Sounds like a plan." He reached for another cookie only to give a look of betrayal to the empty plate. "Blast! Looks like all of the cookies are gone. I guess there's no excuse not to get started on this math, now."

* * *

Nothing unusual emerged from the medical examinations the next day, although afterward Ranma dragged the other two off to an ice cream parlor. He felt the need for a great deal of consolation for the indignities he had suffered, in the form of lots and lots of chocolate. With the results of the physicals mailed to Masamune, they were now completely ready to start their final school year. 


	7. Letters

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 7. Letters**

In Nerima, on the Thursday of the third week after school ended, Ranma, Akane and Kasumi did not return from their training trip as expected. People began to notice but no one was much concerned, as it was easy to imagine something causing a small delay. However, when Friday came and went with no sign of them, some people began to get worried. Shampoo, Ukyo and Kodachi had all separately come by the house that day, and had been forced to leave disappointed. The fathers began to sweat at some of the looks of thinly veiled threat which had been directed toward them, as if they were somehow to blame for Ranma's failure to reappear.

On Saturday, under the excuse that Nodoka needed her husband and Soun Tendo to help make her house livable once more, the three of them disappeared. Nabiki was thus left by herself to deal with any problems which might arise if her sisters and Ranma failed to show up again that day. Both Kodachi and Shampoo telephoned to learn if there was any sign yet of the boy which they claimed, and although audibly upset to hear that there was not, they did not yet show any sign of coming over to express their disappointment violently.

After hanging up on Shampoo, Nabiki heard the mailman outside the gate, and went out to retrieve the mail. As she was bringing it back in, she noticed that there were letters addressed to herself, her father, and the Saotome's, all in Kasumi's handwriting. This was so odd that she immediately opened her letter to read it, even before going back inside.

_Dearest Sister,_

_By the time you read this, Akane, Ranma and I will have been living in our new home for two weeks. It is our intention to remain here for the next year, until Akane and Ranma graduate, in a location which will hopefully remain undiscovered for as long as possible._

Nabiki stopped reading temporarily, staring off into space blankly, with a feeling of shock. Her eyes slowly turned back to the piece of paper she held.

_I am quite sure that it will not be difficult for you to guess at the reasons why this has been done. If you want a more complete explanation, I am sure that you will be able to read the letters which were sent to father and the Saotome's. Suffice it to say that Akane and Ranma have begun to admit their feelings for one another, and have also come to recognize that there is no chance for them to properly explore their relationship under the pressures exerted by our parents and the other people living in Nerima._

_We do not hold to any vain hope of remaining undiscovered forever, but we would like that event to be avoided for as long as possible. To that end I ask you, out of whatever respect you may bear toward me and the love we share as sisters, to refuse your assistance to anyone in the matter of discovering our whereabouts._

‹Damn, Kasumi. Do you realize how much potential profit you're asking me to ignore?›

_I realize how much potential profit I am asking you to ignore, but request that you do so, please, out of consideration for your sisters. Also note that this request is meant to specifically include both our father and the Saotome's. We do not ask that you keep secret any facts revealed in this or any other letter from our hand. You may feel free to inform people that we are living in another location for the next year, that Akane and Ranma will be attending a high school here, that they have not secretly married and do in fact have separate bedrooms, and that I am with them as chaperon and in loco parentis. More importantly, for your sakes, you should emphasize that we intend to have little or no contact with our families during this time; both to avoid discovery, and to make it difficult for our parents to again attempt to apply pressure to our younger sister and Ranma._

_Our thoughts are with you as you begin your university career. As the sole remaining Tendo sister to which he has access, I suppose that father may attempt to interfere in your life more than has previously been his custom, but I am sure that you, at least, are up to that challenge._

_Speaking of challenges, be aware that Ranma has sent a strongly worded letter to Ukyo Kuonji. In it he explains what we have done, but also breaks off their engagement. I am uncertain how she will react to this, so you should be prepared for the worst, though I have every faith in your ability to handle it. You have after all shown yourself to be quite capable of such in the past._

_Your loving sister,_

_Kasumi_

‹My God, Kasumi. I never even guessed that you were up to something like this. Don't I feel like the prize idiot; I'm the one who's always supposed to be in possession of all of the information, ready to sell to the highest bidder. Was this your idea, I wonder, or Akane's, or Ranma's? Or did the three of you come up with it together during some discussion you were having behind all of our backs? How the devil are you managing the money situation? Rent, clothing, food, utilities, school fees, etc. How _long_ did the three of you spend planning this, without my getting a whiff of it?›

She looked down speculatively at the other two letters in her hands, noting that all of the postmarks were from two days ago, here in Nerima. Not that she thought for a moment that her sisters were dumb enough to be living here in Nerima and think that they could remain undiscovered for long.

‹Would she have made a quick trip back just to post them? ... No. I bet she had a friend post them for her. I might be able to find out who and see if she knows ... but no, she asked that I not look for them. Or not to help anyone look for them, but then it's probably best that I don't know anything myself.› She considered the last paragraph again. ‹I wonder how Ukyo _will_ react? I'm surprised that she hasn't come tearing down the street already, demanding answers. It would also seem that no letters were sent to Shampoo or Kodachi, and aren't they going to just be thrilled when they discover that omission?›

Meanwhile a short distance away, an okonomiyaki chef was sitting in her apartment above her restaurant, staring unseeing at a letter lying flat on the table in front of her. She had been sitting in that position since shortly after the mail arrived, while the restaurant remained unopened.

_Ukyo,_

_I would have liked to have addressed this to "Ucchan" or "Dear Ukyo" or even "My friend." However, I'm afraid that none of those would be truly appropriate at this time._

_I had long been uncertain in my mind about what to do in regard to the debt of honor I owed you due to the engagement between us arranged by our fathers. It was certainly obvious that I could not marry both you and Akane (I do not count either Shampoo or Kodachi as valid alternatives). This left me in a situation which I did not know how to resolve._

_I can therefore understand why you felt it was appropriate to put a stop to the attempted wedding ceremony between myself and Akane. After all, you and I were engaged, even though the engagement to Akane had priority as a pre-existing claim. Also, it certainly was not my idea to get married that day. On the other hand, there was a right way and a wrong way to try to stop the marriage from occurring, and in my mind you definitely chose the wrong way. You crossed an irredeemable line with me that day when you chose to use explosives. I do not count as important the danger to myself, but the damage done to the dojo, the threat of injury or even death to Akane, to my mother, to other members of our families or guests at the wedding, that was utterly inexcusable. For this reason, I consider myself absolved by your own actions of any debt of honor which may have once existed between us. Our engagement is herewith terminated._

_Since I do not wish you to hear of this elsewhere first, I feel obliged to inform you that Akane and I have found the courage to start expressing our true feelings for one another. I am sure you will be asking "why her," and I do not pretend to understand how my own mind works in this matter. Except that I recognize that for any woman who wishes to put up with me over the long term, it is a vital characteristic that she know how to tell me when I am being an idiot. I do not yet know whether Akane will be that woman, but I am determined to find out, and am certain that I cannot do so in the chaos that is Nerima. For this reason, Akane and I have moved out of the Tendo home to an undisclosed location. We will attend school there for the next year, and will not return until after we graduate, if then. At the time that I am writing this, no one in Nerima has any idea where we have gone, and we do not intend to make it easy for anyone to find us._

_I am very sorry that this move and the secrecy surrounding it was so necessary. We were once good friends, and I hope that one day I may forgive you for your actions and we may be friends again, if in fact this is something that you desire as well, and if you are willing to forgive me for the choices which I have made. But forgiveness will take time, and the fading of unpleasant memories. Until then, I think it best that we not meet._

_I hope that one day you may meet a man who can care for you in the same way that you care for him._

_In hope of a better future,_

_Ranma_

_P.S. Aside from our families, you are the only one to whom I am telling this, because of our past and hopefully future friendship. The others will have to discover it on their own._

Another tear slowly rolled down the chef's face, to join the growing puddle on the table.

* * *

It was late in the day before Nabiki's father and the two Saotome's returned. The remaining Tendo daughter met them at the door with the letters, handing them over without comment. The parents were sufficiently concerned that they opened them immediately and began to read, with Nodoka reading their letter over her husband's shoulder, and Nabiki unashamedly reading her father's letter over his shoulder.

_Dearest Father,_

_By the time you read this, we should already be overdue from the training trip you believe us to be on. In fact, we never took such a trip. That story was, to put it bluntly, a lie that we told to cover the fact that we were moving out. By now, we are living in our new home, where Akane and Ranma will attend a local high school, and we have no intention of returning until after they graduate next year._

Soun Tendo started waving the letter in the air, wailing. "My daughters have run away from home!" Next to him, Genma Saotome gave a grunt, obviously having received a similar message in his letter. Nabiki grabbed at her father's flailing hand, as his actions were making it impossible for her to read further. "Perhaps they tell us where they are," she suggested, although she knew from her own letter that this was unlikely. However, the suggestion did succeed in calming the distraught man down enough for her to be able to read what Kasumi had written.

_It should not be necessary to explain why we have done this, but your continuing inability to see what has been in front of your face for so long makes it obvious that it is necessary. I know that it pains you to have your daughter write to you like this, just as it embarrasses me that I need to do so._

_It has been clear to me for some time that Akane and Ranma have been falling in love with one another. It isn't so surprising, after all, for they are eminently well suited. However, they are both young, shy, and have a hard time expressing their feelings. Both have personal issues they need to learn to deal with; issues resulting from flaws in their upbringing or experiences, which make it difficult for either to form mature, trusting bonds of the most intimate nature with another person. The proper approach should have been to introduce them and then let nature take its course. Instead you have pushed, and pushed, and pushed, driving them further apart and damaging their relationship, forcing them to slowly recover each time. A little more of that, or another disaster like the failed wedding, and the damage might well end up being irreparable. In other words, I feared that allowing them to remain under your sphere of influence any longer might not only have destroyed any chance of achieving your dream of uniting the two schools but also any hope of eventual happiness for either. Not that I consider the former to be of any importance; my concern is for Akane and Ranma themselves, not for the success of your plots._

_This is not to say that you are solely at fault. The slightly differing pressures from Genma and Nodoka Saotome, and the troubles caused by all of the young women and men chasing after the two of them, have been equally harmful. In the midst of such chaos, it is hardly surprising that it has been difficult for the flower of their love to blossom. Thus, when the two of them approached me with a workable plan to leave home and escape the chaos, I embraced it wholeheartedly, and have given them my full support to carry it through._

_I suspect that your natural family feelings for Akane and myself will lead you to discover where it is that we are staying, since we have only taken ordinary, and not extraordinary, measures to hide it. But I would ask that you do bear my words in mind when you finally find us. If, as you say, your ultimate goal is for Akane and Ranma to marry, then I feel that they are already well on their way, and that your best hope of achieving this goal is to let us proceed as we have begun._

_Your loving daughter,_

_Kasumi_

By the time he finished the letter, his tears were soaking the paper, and Nabiki found it necessary to rescue it from him before the ink ran. She read it through again, and sighed. A little ... talk ... Kasumi had had with her after the wedding had opened her eyes to the damage that she herself had done to Akane and Ranma. She felt that Kasumi's letter was dead on target in every respect, and was a little surprised at how sharply some of those words rang. Her ever-calm older sister had obviously felt quite strongly to say some of the things she had said.

She looked over at the Saotome's, where Genma was practically crumpling the paper he held in his hands. She did not feel it wise to go over there and try to read it while he held it, but began making plans to recover it later from wherever he discarded or secreted it, in order to compare its contents to those in her father's letter.

"Nabiki," Genma grated out. "How long do you think it would take you to discover where our ungrateful children have disappeared to? And how much will it cost us?"

The young woman gave him a withering look, although her words were respectful enough on the face of it. "I am afraid, Uncle Saotome, that all of my time these days is taken up with preparing to attend the university. I do not have the time to spare to search for them right now, especially since they have had two weeks in which to cover their tracks. More than two weeks, in fact, since they almost certainly were planning this well before they left. That is obvious just from how neatly they got all of us out of the house while they were no doubt packing up to leave. I have no doubt that if we examine their rooms, we'll find that all of their clothes and most of their other possessions are gone."

Nodoka Saotome regarded her with narrow-eyed suspicion. "You don't have time, or you won't take the time? What if we offer you twice your usual fee?" Genma's howl of outraged protest at this suggestion distracted the other two long enough for Nabiki to successfully wrestle with the temptation offered.

"Take it however you wish. I will not spare the time from my university preparations to help you to find them."

With that she left the room, and went upstairs in an assumed huff before anyone could raise the ante and test her beyond her abilities to withstand. She quickly took a peek into each of her sisters' rooms and found, as she had predicted, that their clothes and possessions were all gone. She chided herself momentarily for not having noticed that in the last two weeks, but then forgave herself, as she had had no reason to go looking for any such thing. It was so unlike Akane to want to do anything with Ranma, and the thought of Kasumi planning anything shady should have been unthinkable.

Later that evening she pulled a crumpled and torn wad of paper out of the kitchen trash.

_Mr. and Mrs. Saotome,_

_By the time you read this, we should already be overdue from the training trip you believe us to be on. In fact, we never took such a trip. That story was, to put it bluntly, a lie that we told to cover the fact that we were moving out. By now, we are living in our new home, where Akane and Ranma will attend a local high school, and we have no intention of returning until after they graduate next year._

_It is my fondest wish that you will not discover our whereabouts. It has wrenched my heart over the past nearly two years to watch Ranma and my youngest sister tortured at every turn by your actions, and the actions of others here in Nerima. When your son and my sister approached me for help to escape from the intolerable situation in which you had placed them, that they might have a chance to finally realize their love for one another, I chose to give them my full support. In doing so, I realize that I have probably earned your enmity, but I would not hesitate to make the same choice again._

_Should you find us, then I would strongly suggest that you remember that your stated desire is for the two of them to marry and "unite the schools." They are already falling in love despite your unwarranted interference and are therefore well on the way toward achieving your desired goal. If you can only console yourself to a little patience, and allow matters to proceed without further interference, then I am confident of the eventual result. If, however, you find that your need to control your son's life outweighs all other considerations, then I am equally confident that you will succeed in destroying whatever relationship that Akane and Ranma have managed to build in your absence._

_I will not berate either of you for your past mistakes, although they are legion. I will only implore you, for Akane's and Ranma's sakes, to avoid repeating those mistakes to the eventual heartbreak of those most intimately involved. Their happiness should, after all, be your dearest wish._

_With a hopeful heart,_

_Kasumi Tendo_

Nabiki's eyebrows were quite high by the time she finished reading. ‹Whoa, Kasumi. Full broadside, take no prisoners. Well, that's not entirely fair. If _I_ had written this letter, it would have been far, far worse. But for Kasumi, this is extremely scathing.›

* * *

It wasn't until Sunday morning that Nabiki began to contemplate what should be told to either Shampoo or Kodachi, when they inevitably contacted the house looking for Ranma. It was somewhat surprising to her that they had been content to merely telephone the previous day, and the possibility existed that they might become violent soon if they did not start receiving any answers to their increasingly urgent demands.

‹It will probably be best to just tell them the truth. But if I'm going to tell them the truth anyway, then it would be even better to go to them first and tell them before they come around here. Perhaps that way we might avoid violence, and especially more damage to the house and dojo. Besides, knowing them, if they were to come here first, then even if we tell them the truth they might not choose to believe it.›

‹Besides, I'm more likely to be able to get them to pay for the information if I go to them first.›

Having decided on a course of action, she put it into effect immediately, leaving the house to walk over to the Nekohanten, the café run by Shampoo and her great-grandmother. The sign in front said "Closed," since it was not yet time to open for lunch, but Nabiki knew that preparations would already be underway, and she confidently and loudly knocked on the door. The purple-haired head of Shampoo popped out from the back and, seeing Nabiki, came out to discover what she wanted. She stood in the doorway, blocking entry into the café itself.

"You have news of Ranma, yes? Airen is back now?"

"No, I'm afraid he's not back yet, but I do have news. May I come in?"

Shampoo gave her a scowl, presumably for not providing the answer which she had wanted to hear, but opened the door wider and gestured for Nabiki to step inside. She then shut the door hard on her heels and rudely pushed ahead to precede her into the kitchen in the back.

"Great-grandmother, mercenary girl is here with news about airen."

The withered old woman looked up from the large pot bubbling on top of the stove, over which she was perched while balancing on her staff. "So what is son-in-law up to this time," snorted Cologne, "and how much is it going to cost me to find out?"

"Since I only have a little information, though of significant import, let's say 2000 yen."

Cologne reached into a pocket and pulled out the money, passing it over silently. Nabiki sketched a shallow bow of ironic acknowledgment.

"Thank you. Yesterday I, my father, and the parents of Ranma Saotome all received letters addressed to us by Kasumi, which appear to me to have been written just over two weeks ago, at the time they initially left to go away on a two week training trip. They were presumably left with someone here in Nerima to put into the mail at the appropriate time. It seems that Akane and Ranma, with the aid of my older sister, have run away from home and are living in another city somewhere."

Shampoo gasped. Cologne just narrowed her eyes, waiting.

"According to these letters, they intend to live wherever it is that they are for at least a year, attending high school there. They have not seen fit to inform us of where they went, and at this moment I'm afraid that I have been left with no clues of any kind. However, Kasumi did write that they did not elope, that they did not run away with the intention to marry at this time."

"Why airen leave with violent kitchen-destroyer? That make no sense."

Cologne sighed over her heir's obtuseness, then turned to Nabiki. "Will you accept a commission to try to locate them for us?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Nabiki replied. "As I have already told my own father and Ranma's parents, I have no time to adequately execute such a commission right now. My preparations to attend university must take precedence. Besides, my network runs thin beyond Tokyo, and I am sure that they have gone beyond the city borders at the very least. There is likely little I could do which you could not do yourselves."

Cologne nodded, revealing nothing of her concerns for the implications of what she had heard and the choices which she might soon have to make. "I suppose you are selling this information to the others as well?"

There was no reason to deny the obvious. "Yes, I am. I intend to go to the Kuno mansion as soon as I leave here. There is no need for me to stop by Ucchan's, since one of the letters was addressed to Kuonji-san."

Shampoo looked confused. "They send letter to spatula girl, but not Shampoo? Why?"

Nabiki turned her eyes up toward the ceiling to hide the expression of scorn that she could not control. Very carefully, fully aware of the Amazon's temper, she answered. "I could speculate, but I don't pretend to be able to read minds. Since my speculations on the matter are only likely to anger you, I think that I will refrain from voicing them."

Shampoo glared at Nabiki but didn't say anything. Once Nabiki was sure that there would be no further questions, she turned around and walked out. Shampoo turned to Cologne with a forlorn look of crushed hope.

"Great-grandmother, what we do now?"

Cologne sighed with exasperation that an Amazon of her bloodline could be reduced to acting so much like an ordinary girl. "The most obvious thing to try first is to go to the school office and obtain the information on where the school records for son-in-law and the Tendo girl were sent. But since today is Sunday and the school is closed, you might instead go by the train station and see if you can find anyone there who remembers the destination of the tickets which were purchased two weeks ago by son-in-law. In the meantime, I will contact some people to make them aware that we are looking for information on their whereabouts or that of Kasumi Tendo."

Shampoo nodded, then took off immediately, riding her bicycle in the direction of the train station.

The old woman settled back wearily for some serious thinking, feeling the weight of all of her many years. She carefully considered recent events in the life of Ranma Saotome, and how they fit together. What Mousse and Shampoo had told her of events at Jusendo. The wedding disaster. The decision to leave Nerima and hide from herself and Shampoo. The choice to take Akane Tendo with him. What it might mean to attempt to force Ranma to come to China.

‹Shampoo has lost, and I don't dare help her to win anymore. Ranma has made his decision, and his capabilities have grown to the point that we don't dare bring him back to our village against his will. Further, given what happened at Jusendo, it would clearly be catastrophic if Shampoo were to harm Akane Tendo. The only thing left is for my great-granddaughter to come to this realization as well, and to face the punishment which awaits her for failure. At least that punishment should not be too severe, since the other council members must surely also realize the danger Ranma represents. Particularly if they acknowledge that danger before Shampoo surrenders.›

‹In fact, it would probably be best if I wrote to them now, speaking plainly of my own concerns, to be sure that they are spoken openly and not just realized privately. In the meantime, I will try to help locate Ranma as I promised, but without rushing the matter, and I will not agree to close the Nekohanten to chase him, or to provide any further material aid. The longer that it takes to find him, the more likely she is to realize the futility of prolonging her quest based only on her infatuation with the boy.›

‹With luck, whatever punishment the council decides upon, the shame will pass after a few years and she can begin to rise in status once more. More than one of our matriarchs have similar blemishes in their pasts. Just look at my own youth.› She grimaced. ‹If I could rise to my current position after allowing Happosai to seduce me and steal some of our treasures, then Shampoo should be able to overcome this situation as well. Even if I hate to remember how long it took after that before I ceased to be an object of ridicule.›

* * *

At the Kuno mansion, Nabiki charged a considerably larger sum of money for the information on Akane and Ranma than she had the Amazons, not only because the Kuno's had more, but also because she had more information to sell. She told them that Ranma had run off with Tatewaki Kuno's "pigtailed goddess" in addition to Akane. Once again, she was forced to refuse to provide any help in tracking them down, and this time the size of the bribe offered made it an extreme sacrifice to do so. When she finished, Kodachi leaped out of a window onto the street dressed only in a leotard, and took off in the direction of the train station, laughing maniacally. Tatewaki dismissed Nabiki after it became apparent that she had no further information to sell and, before she had even left, turned to Sasuke to assign to him the task of tracking down his loves and the foul sorcerer.

Out of curiosity, Nabiki walked by Ucchan's before heading home. The restaurant was dark, and there was a sign in the window stating that it was closed, but would reopen on Monday. She shrugged her shoulders, assuming that Ukyo had become very depressed over this turn of events, and turned her feet back toward her home.

‹Well, baby sister, I hope that you, Ranma and Kasumi really did cover your tracks well. Because the Nerima crazies are looking for you now, and they're going to be pretty unhappy if and when they find you.›

* * *

Shampoo was the first to arrive at the Nerima train station, but was not having much luck in obtaining any information. Neither threats nor cute smiles and suggestive glances were proving successful in obtaining any information about the train tickets purchased by the trio two weeks before. She was still arguing with the ticket seller when Kodachi showed up, landing right beside her. The Kuno girl ignored Shampoo, and loudly demanded to know the destination to which her Ranma-sama had disappeared. The ticket seller again pled ignorance, then practically started drooling when Kodachi pulled out a thick wad of yen notes. He decided that perhaps he could think about this a little harder.

He asked to have the people they were seeking described to him once again. Shampoo and Kodachi proceeded to interrupt one another, with Kodachi describing the four individuals who were traveling together, and Shampoo adding her own tidbits to the descriptions but pointing out there were only three of them, except that the boy might also appear as the red-haired girl. Concentrating harder on the descriptions this time, as well as the money, the man cast his memory back and finally recalled the teenage couple who had been talking happily about the vacation they were taking in Nagoya. Yes, he was certain that they had purchased tickets for that city. He provided this information, received his reward, and then sold the two girls tickets on the next train to Nagoya, which was due to depart in one hour.

The two girls decided that it would be best to declare a temporary truce and work together, in order to improve their chances of finding Ranma instead of interfering with one another. When they boarded the train, they were pleased to discover that the conductor regularly worked this route, and he not only remembered Akane and Ranma from their descriptions, but also remembered the other girl they described joining them after the train left the station. Both Kodachi and Shampoo felt certain that they were on the right track.

Much later that day they were both far less happy, and were snapping at one another constantly. No one at the train station in Nagoya remembered any of the three. They had no luck discovering anything about them at any hotels, restaurants or other locations they asked. They dejectedly climbed aboard the very last train heading back to Tokyo, having discovered no additional clues to the whereabouts of their prey.

In the meantime, Cologne was also making inquiries. She left Shampoo to pursue the straightforward trail, but privately suspected it was a waste of time. After all, Ranma had been raised by Genma, who was a past master at getting out of town with pursuers hot on his heels. Therefore the elder had made her inquiries of ticket purchases at train stations throughout Tokyo, with a combination of persuasion, subtlety, and cash. She was eventually successful at finding the station from which they had departed Tokyo later in the day on which they left, but no amount of prompting was able to get the ticket seller or any of the other employees to recall their destination or even the direction which they had taken. It appeared that for the time being, the trail had come to a dead end.


	8. School Begins

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 8. School Begins**

On the first day of classes at Masamune High School, Akane and Ranma showed up well before the first bell in their new uniforms. They walked in together, hand-in-hand, and were not met by anyone attempting to challenge either of them. By the time that they took seats beside one another in their classroom, they were in agreement that this felt like a very weird way to start the day. They were also aware that they were both the recipients of quite a number of appreciative or envious looks, depending on the gender of the one looking and which of the pair they were looking at.

Akane was further amazed that Ranma actually managed to stay awake in all of his morning classes, and even seemed to be paying attention. His head did start to nod a little shortly before the bell for lunch, but he smiled apologetically to Akane when she poked him, and returned his attention to the teacher.

Back in Nerima, the office at Furinkan High School had been deluged by requests for the identity of the school to which Saotome-san and Tendo-san had transferred. Shampoo, Kodachi, Sasuke, Soun Tendo, and even Nabiki Tendo either came by or called for that purpose. Shampoo showed up first, loudly and menacingly demanding the information. The poor secretary became very frazzled because the data were not in the files where they were supposed to be and, although she could remember mailing the records to some high school somewhere, she could not for the life of her remember the name of the high school or where it was located. As Shampoo became more demanding, the nervous secretary pretended to remember the name, and made one up to satisfy the Amazon. When the Chinese girl departed, the woman breathed a sigh of relief and made herself a restorative cup of tea. Unfortunately, just as she was lifting the tea to her lips, Kodachi Kuno appeared and insisted on being given the same information, causing the secretary to spill the tea all over her desk and driving the name she had given to Shampoo right out of her head. Since Kodachi's father was the principal of the high school, the woman was well aware of how insane the young gymnast could be, and quickly gave her the name of a prestigious high school from another ward of Tokyo. After that, it was one after another, with no time for the agitated woman to regain her equilibrium. She gave each petitioner the name of a different school.

Ukyo didn't even bother to make inquiries about Ranma's disappearance. She had spent the long, empty Sunday growing more and more depressed, slowly realizing how badly she had gone wrong in her attempts to win the boy's love. As she entered the classroom, she looked at the desks where Akane and Ranma would have been sitting had they been here, only to see them occupied by other students. This brought a fresh stab of pain, the more so as no one else even seemed to notice. It seemed that life insisted on going on, despite her pain, as unstoppable as the ocean waves against which she once had trained. Ukyo contemplated, once again, trying to find where the pair had gone and going to confront them, and once again decided against doing so. What, after all, would she say if she did find them? The only thing that she could think of was to beat Ranma senseless with her spatula, and it just didn't feel like it was worth it. The only bright spot she noticed was that Tatewaki Kuno had graduated last year, so that everyone was spared his speeches before school and during lunch.

Ukyo pondered what she would do now. ‹Perhaps it's time to give the Panda another beating for screwing up my life? That might cheer me up some.›

* * *

When lunchtime arrived, Akane and Ranma headed outside to eat. At Akane's suggestion they sat down under different trees, not too far apart but clearly not sitting together. She was concerned that if they sat together, the other students might choose to leave them alone out of respect for their privacy, which would hinder their ability to make friends at the new school. After a rebellious moment Ranma had agreed, and the strategy paid off as a couple of boys wandered over to sit by Ranma, and three girls sat in a circle with Akane.

Under the tree with Ranma, one of the boys glanced back toward the girls and then asked, "You're new here aren't you? You and Akane Tendo both? It looks like the two of you are a couple, right?"

Ranma replied proudly, "Yeah, Akane and I just moved here from Nerima a few weeks back. We've been dating for a while now, so we were real happy when we found out that we could both move here rather than being separated."

The other boy asked with an inquisitive leer, "So are you two living with separate people, or are you actually living in the same house?"

Ranma looked pained at the suggestiveness in his tone. "Well, I'm sure we couldn't hide it for long, so I'll admit we're living in the same place. But anybody that suggests anything improper because of that is going to find out that it was a mistake to get me angry."

The boy gave him a look of mock horror, but there was a note of warning in his voice as well when he replied. "Oh, you got a black belt or something? I should warn you, we've got a couple of hot shot martial artists at this school, and they like people to know how good they are."

Ranma smirked. "With my arrival, the best martial artist in this city is me. And Akane is the second best."

The other two boys both rolled their eyes skyward. "Get a load of the ego this guy has. With a mouth like that you'd better be prepared to defend that claim."

"Oh I am. Anytime." His voice held unshakable confidence.

They went on to compare and contrast Nerima with Sendai, Furinkan with Masamune, their favorite manga and anime series, girls they had dated or would like to date, and similar matters of interest. The gazes of all three frequently drifted toward the group of girls sitting nearby.

Meanwhile those girls were grilling Akane pretty thoroughly, while casting longing looks Ranma's way from under their lashes. Akane was beginning to wonder if their main purpose was to gather information on her fiancé. They all pouted when told that she and Ranma were sharing an apartment.

"So, you and Saotome-kun must be pretty serious about one another if you're living together, huh?" one of them inquired, while giving the impression that she wished that the answer could be negative.

Akane fondly looked over to where Ranma was sitting, inhaling his lunch. "Yeah, we are pretty serious," she admitted, "but don't get the wrong impression. We're living with a family friend, and we have separate bedrooms. We haven't done anything beyond kissing, although I have to admit that that's pretty nice." She blushed slightly.

A girl with a long ponytail stared at her in wonder. "Wow, you're living under the same roof with a hunk like that and all you've done is kiss? Man, I don't think I could restrain myself nearly as well."

Akane sighed, remembering a dream she had the previous night in which she didn't restrain herself at all. She searched for the words to explain. "We've both had some unfortunate relationship experiences in the past. We want to take things slowly, and not risk screwing things up."

One of the girls, a little more tactful than the others and sensing the awkwardness which Akane was feeling, changed the subject. "Well, are you planning on joining any clubs here? I'm in the drama club myself; it's a lot of fun. We were thinking of doing a play by Shakespeare this term, 'Romeo and Juliet.' It's a tragedy about two lovers who are kept apart by their families."

Akane blanched. "No, I'm afraid that I won't have time for any clubs. Ranma and I both have to work after school to help pay our living expenses; our parents aren't contributing anything. We also spend a good bit of time each day in our martial arts training. The little bit of spare time left over after that will have to be spent on schoolwork."

The girl to Akane's right made a face as if she had bitten into something disgusting. "That sucks. It sounds like you won't have time for any fun at all."

Akane smiled. "To me, martial arts training _is_ fun. I can't think of another way that I'd prefer to spend my time, despite the bruises." Her new friends just shook their heads in incomprehension over this strange point of view.

* * *

After leaving school for the day, Ukyo went in search of Genma Saotome in the hope of lifting her spirits with a little mayhem, but was doomed to disappointment. His wife Nodoka had threatened him with her sword and kicked him out of the front gate with his pack, telling him not to return until he had found their son and potential daughter-in-law. Genma decided to start by checking out the various dojos and retreats throughout Japan where he and his son had stayed during their ten year training trip. He thought it likely that Ranma would flee to someplace familiar where the people might remember him generously. Even if he hadn't, this plan at least had the merit of removing Genma far from Nodoka and the reach of her lethally sharp blade. As a matter of fact Genma's thought was not a bad one, as this idea had briefly crossed Ranma's mind before he thought of Tofu Ono, but it would of course accomplish nothing as matters now stood.

Shortly thereafter Nodoka Saotome moved back into her own home, leaving Soun Tendo living entirely alone for the first time in many years. He made calls to various people he knew around the country, to ask them to keep their ears out for any information about the children, but did not hold out much hope for success from this. He found himself spending many quiet hours in his house, thinking back over the last couple of years, rereading time and again the letter from his daughter Kasumi. He was beginning to recognize, now that it was too late, many of the mistakes he had made and could no longer correct.

Shampoo had paid a visit to the school whose name had been given to her by the Furinkan secretary, spending a day terrorizing the faculty, staff, and student body. All of the people she interrogated had insisted that they had never heard of a Ranma Saotome, nor an Akane Tendo, and they never wanted to either. When she had returned to Nerima, angry and confused, she had spoken to her great-grandmother and expressed her determination to go back every day until she found her airen. Cologne had squashed the idea.

"If you spent the entire day there without hearing a word of him," the elder told her, "then obviously you were on a false trail. There is no point in wasting your time continuing down it; you should wait for the reports from the people I have contacted. In the meantime, this café does not run itself. Get out there and tend to our customers!"

As Cologne had informed Shampoo, she had contacted a number of people across the countryside, having them check up on schools and otherwise looking for information. On the other hand, she had not told those people to attach any special priority to finding this information. She, alone among those searching, had thought to investigate Doctor Tofu's replacement in Nerima, and the gynecologist used by Akane and Kasumi Tendo, in an attempt to determine if their medical records had been sent anywhere. Neither of these inquiries bore fruit, since Doctor Tofu had kept copies of his own medical records and therefore did not need copies from his replacement, and the gynecologist had kept his word and said nothing about personally handing copies of the files to Tofu when he was in Tokyo. So even though Cologne arranged to have a check made on whether either doctor had mailed the records anywhere, no such evidence was uncovered since no records had been mailed.

Since Cologne continued to insist that she needed Shampoo's help with the restaurant, the latter was not permitted to go roaming across the countryside seeking her airen. Shampoo grew very frustrated as she waited for one of her great-grandmother's contacts to get back in touch with them. Mousse, despite his infatuation with her, was learning to stay out of her sight as much as possible, due to her tendency to take out those frustrations on him.

On another front, Sasuke was also growing quite frustrated. He was having absolutely no luck in tracking down the targets of his master's and mistress' obsessions, and they were making their displeasure known in physically unpleasant fashions. Having no other leads, he had taken to trailing Nabiki Tendo hoping that she knew more than she had said and would eventually lead him to the ones he sought. For her part, she knew that he was following her, but chose to be amused by it, and furthered her amusement by sending him down false trails. Nabiki allowed him to learn of letters or phone calls she made to places selected at random, which he then felt compelled to investigate. As an exercise in satisfying her own curiosity, and only during those times when Sasuke was off on wild goose chases, Nabiki also tried to locate her sisters and potential brother-in-law, exercising methods which would cost her little since she did not intend to profit from the information. So far, however, she had uncovered nothing, and had to admit herself impressed that they apparently had not been careless in their plans.

* * *

A couple of weeks passed with no problems, and Akane and Ranma were beginning to feel comfortable in their new school, and with the other students. Then at the end of one school day, Akane was standing out in front waiting for Ranma, so that they could head off together to work. She saw a boy approaching her, and recognized him as one of the better martial artists at the school, who was in the same classroom as Akane and Ranma most of the day.

"Hello Tendo-san, may I speak with you?"

"Certainly, Morishita-san. What can I do for you?" she asked politely.

"I was wondering if you would be free this Friday night to go to a movie with me?"

The corners of Akane's smile turned down. She had thought that she and Ranma had made it clear that they were together. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her fiancé emerging from the door of the school. "I am sorry, Morishita-san, but Saotome-san is my boyfriend. I am not interested in dating anyone else."

"Oh, but Tendo-san, you can do much better than him. For one thing, I can assure you that I am a much better martial artist than he is. I am, after all, a second dan black belt." He said this last quite proudly.

Akane was unimpressed, and spoke coldly. "How good you may or may not be at martial arts is of no importance in such matters. Saotome-san and I are a couple. Please leave me alone."

She turned away from the boy and toward Ranma, putting a smile back on her face for him. The boy Morishita reached out and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back.

"You really don't want to say 'no' to me, Akane-chan."

Lightning flashed in the depths of her brown eyes. A moment later he was flat on his back, gasping for breath with a diaphragm which was failing to obey his commands to breathe, and a bad sprain in the wrist which had grabbed her arm. There was a loud snicker nearby, and the boy looked up to see Ranma gazing down upon him with dancing eyes.

"Trouble, Akane?"

"No trouble at all, Ranma. Just a minor pest who imagines himself to have some skill at martial arts."

"Ah. Well, shall we be going? We need to catch our bus."

So saying he reached out and took Akane's arm. Stepping across the boy's body, he walked beside his fiancée out through the gate. The wheezing boy looked at his departing back with hate-filled eyes.

The next morning, Akane and Ranma walked in through the school gates to find Morishita standing in the schoolyard waiting for them. They both sighed, heavily.

"Saotome! You will pay for laughing at me yesterday! I am going to show everybody right now who is the more skilled of the two of us!"

Akane covered her mouth with her hand to hide the grin which suddenly broke out there, but Ranma was unable to prevent himself from chuckling out loud.

"Morishita-san, you really don't want to do this. I've faced far worse than you, more times than I care to remember. I advise you to swallow your pride and leave Akane and I alone in future."

"What's the matter? Are you too scared to fight, you little eunuch?"

Ranma just shook his head, and walked toward the other boy. This confused the latter somewhat, but did not distract him from his goal. As Ranma came within range, Morishita snapped out a perfect kick to the side of Ranma's head. He was shocked when the foot did not connect, and he felt his other leg being swept out from underneath him. A sudden blow to the middle of his chest caused him to fly backward through the air for three meters, where he then landed unconscious.

Ranma walked back and took Akane's hand while the other students who were present just stared at him. Together they walked around the unconscious boy and into the school.

"Let's just hope he's not as delusional as Kuno, and learns his lesson," Akane said. Ranma only nodded.

At lunchtime Ranma looked up with a scowl to see Morishita striding toward him, with three allies apparently cut from the same mold.

"Saotome! We're going to teach you a lesson, right now!"

Ranma stood up and snorted. "Aw, go home to your mama, Morishita!"

Off to the side, the girls sitting with Akane looked toward her to see what she would do. They were amazed to see that she was merely watching the unfolding drama, with a somewhat bored expression.

"Akane, aren't you worried? That's four-to-one odds against your boyfriend."

"There's nothing to worry about. After all, Ranma won't cripple them or anything. He's far too good."

The four boys attacked simultaneously, for all the good that it did them. The fight was over half a minute later, with all four of them stretched out on the ground, groaning. There was a limit, however, to how easy Ranma could go on them, since all four of them did admittedly have some skill at fighting. Consequently, one of the boys ended up with a fractured femur, and Morishita was clenching his teeth at the pain from a dislocated shoulder.

Akane turned to the other girls. "Could one of you go get the school nurse? And someone else go to the office and tell them that at least a couple of boys out here are going to need medical attention? The rest of you please stick around so that the school officials can get a straight story on who started this mess."

With that she climbed to her own feet, and walked over to Ranma.

"You okay, Ranma?" she whispered.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied, equally quietly. "I just wish we didn't have to put up with this kind of thing everywhere we go. I also wish they hadn't come at me all at once like that. I would have much preferred not having to injure anyone. I hope the principal isn't going to yell at me about this."

"I'm sure he'll understand, Ranma, once he hears the facts about what happened. You didn't start it, and if you'd been trying to be vicious, their injuries would have been a lot more extensive."

"Yeah, I suppose. I just wish ..."

"Ranma, please. While they're not at our level, these guys aren't exactly unskilled. You can't afford to hold back too much in circumstances like that, or you risk getting injured yourself. I don't want you running that kind of risk, and all-in-all I think they got off pretty lightly."

"Okay, okay. Oop, here they all come. Let's get ready to face the music."

The principal was not amused by their story, but after collecting reports from all of the witnesses, he did agree that Ranma had shown restraint under the circumstances.

A couple of days later, Akane went back inside from lunch early in order to get an assignment out of her locker which she had forgotten to bring to a class that morning. She was suddenly aware of the presence of Morishita and his two friends who hadn't suffered bone fractures, in the otherwise empty hall. A fierce look settled on her face.

"Well, Akane-chan, it looks like Saotome isn't around at the moment, eh?"

"I'd advise the three of you to get the hell away from me, right now. I've dealt with perverts like you before, in much larger numbers than this!"

The three boys chuckled nastily, and moved in toward her. She waited until they reached the appropriate distance, and then changed from immobility to furious attack in less than the blink of an eye. If Ranma had dealt with them two days previously with the precision of a surgical scalpel, this was more like facing a raging buzzsaw. Morishita ended up with a broken jaw, broken nose, and torn knee ligaments. Another boy had a concussion and a broken leg. The third boy escaped with only a couple of cracked ribs, but was also clutching himself between his legs in a world of pain from the kick which had connected in that location.

Akane stood there, barely breathing hard, looking down with loathing. A couple of teachers rushed up, having been alerted by the screams of pain.

"What is going on here?"

"I'm sorry, sensei," Akane responded demurely, hiding the seething emotions underneath. "These boys decided to attack me. Apparently they neglected to take into consideration that I am also a martial artist, or that my own skill level might be much higher than theirs."

One of the teachers ran back down the hall to call for medical aid. He returned shortly thereafter followed by the principal and a couple of other teachers. Some students also started to drift in, attracted by the commotion. Principal Bansui took charge.

"You, please keep those students back. You, stay here with these boys until the paramedics arrive. Tendo-san, please return to the office with me. Fujito-san, please go find Saotome-san and ask him to come by my office as well."

He turned and strode back down the hall toward the offices, followed by Akane. In her opinion, he seemed to be rather agitated. ‹I wonder why,› she thought distractedly, ‹after all I punished them far less than they deserved.› A few minutes later he was sitting behind his desk, facing Akane and Ranma who were standing in front of the desk looking back toward him.

"This is the second time in three days that I have had to call paramedics to this school over a fight involving essentially the same students. Understand me, there will not be a third time. Now would you care to explain what happened back there, Tendo-san?"

"Yes, sensei. It was really just a continuation of the last time." As she made her explanation, the principal heard the anger and contempt in her voice which she was trying to suppress. "As we explained two days ago, Morishita-san attempted to ask me for a date the day before that, and did not take it well when I turned him down politely, choosing to make unwelcome advances. Then on Wednesday he attacked Ranma twice, presumably for no better reason than that he is my boyfriend. Today, the three of them cornered me in an empty hallway, for purposes which," her face twisted, fury temporarily escaping from her mask, "I would rather not contemplate. When they attacked, I naturally defended myself. Unfortunately, although I am very good at martial arts, I am not quite as skilled as Ranma, and the boys in question are not exactly unskilled. Therefore, in order to defend myself adequately, I was not capable of being quite as gentle with them as Ranma was on Wednesday, resulting in more serious injuries. While I regret that this whole situation has occurred," her voice solidified into stone, "I will not apologize for the injuries which they received."

The principal blinked once or twice, then sighed. Ranma simply gazed on his fiancée proudly.

"Very well, I'll deal with these boys and their families. While I will not ask the two of you not to defend yourselves, may I please ask that you attempt to avoid similar situations in future, and that you be certain to exhaust diplomatic methods of defusing a crisis before resorting to physical methods?"

"Yes, sensei," they both promised.

"All right. Please return to your class. Misaki-san!"

"Yes, Bansui-sensei?" his secretary asked as she stuck her head in the door. Akane and Ranma stepped around her and departed.

The principal addressed his secretary. "Please contact the families of the injured boys and, first, make sure that they are aware of what has happened and, second, inform them that their children are suspended from school next week, and will serve detention every day of the week after that. Also, make appointments for all of them to come in to speak with me about this matter. I am _not_ putting up with boys cornering a girl and attacking her, even if she is capable of defending herself. Make sure that Morishita-san is transferred to a different classroom; I don't want him sharing any further classes with either Tendo-san or Saotome-san. One further thing, please contact Fujitani-sensei at the dojo by the same name, and tell him that I wish to speak to him concerning the conduct of a couple of the students who have trained under him. Let's see how they like explaining their behavior to him!"

* * *

Author's note:

Several reviewers have mentioned that the dialogue is a little verbose, and Ranma is perhaps too thoughtful. I thought I'd mention that my wife, who preread the story, brought up the same points. So even while noting these traits in the story you have read, take a moment to say a silent "thank you" to her for her efforts, since the original version sinned more greatly in that regard.


	9. Ryoga Shows Up

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 9. Ryoga Shows Up**

Friday nights came to be unofficially considered "date night" by the four. Kasumi got out of the habit of planning communal meals for that night, while making sure there was something readily available for those who were not going to eat out. In particular, Akane and Ranma could not afford to eat out at nicer restaurants very often; instead they would usually go to a movie, or ice skating. Sometimes they would stay in and save their money for paintball battles on Sunday, a form of entertainment to which they had been introduced by a couple of their school friends. Ranma was annoyed, and Akane delighted, when she proved to be better than he at this game.

After they got back from their dates, Kasumi and Tofu would repair to the boys' room, to spend more time together. Ostensibly, they were sitting and reading together, or engaging in quiet conversation, and such activities did in fact occur. But they were also cuddling and making out, quietly so that Akane and Ranma, who were usually out in the living room, wouldn't know what they were up to. Kasumi was worried about setting a good example for her little sister.

Akane knew full well what her older sister was up to, or at least she hoped that her suspicions were correct. She was long since over her childhood crush on Dr. Tofu, and she couldn't be happier for Kasumi. On the other hand, the older couple's romance did make her feel wistful and restless at times, as her own relationship was moving a little more slowly than she might have preferred.

She and Ranma were having long conversations about their pasts, about their hopes for the future, things they liked and didn't like, and in short just getting to know one another. This was exactly what they had hoped to do. When they got home from their dates, or if they just stayed in, they would usually sit out in the living room and talk, or watch television together. There was also some kissing, which she quite enjoyed, but it never seemed like enough. If Akane had ever thought that Ranma had an ulterior motive in devising the plan to live together, she was soon disabused of the notion. To her bemusement, he was shy about showing any affection in front of Kasumi and Tofu, and sometimes when they were kissing he would decide to stop due only to the possibility that one of the others might catch them at it. Adding to her frustration, she was having dreams which made it extremely difficult for her to look at Ranma in the mornings without blushing. It completely escaped her notice that the others were all suffering similarly.

More than two months had passed since school started, and the weather was warming up nicely toward summer. One day, Akane and Ranma were standing out in the schoolyard with some friends, waiting for classes to start, having arrived early. They were talking about a physics assignment which was due the next day, when they heard a familiar voice from the direction of the school gate.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?"

A puzzled voice responded, "This is Masamune High School, just like the sign over there says."

As one, Ranma's and Akane's heads snapped around toward the voices and Ranma shouted out, "Ryoga?"

It was indeed Ryoga Hibiki, looking as unkempt and depressed as ever. At the sound of Ranma's ill-advised call, his head turned, and his eyes locked with Ranma's. He did not immediately spot Akane, who was partially obscured from his view by Ranma and one of her friends to whom she had been talking. Ryoga started running forward, shouting out as he did so, "Ranma Saotome! Prepare to die!"

"Oh, jeez." Ranma's head suddenly swiveled around, feeling a battle aura blazing into life beside him. "Oh, shit!"

"Ryoga Hibiki! Prepare to die!" screamed the voice beside Ranma.

Ryoga had been picking up speed, heading toward his enemy and rival when he heard this cry. He skidded to a halt, his brain trying to cope with what he was seeing, as he realized that Akane was running toward him with murder in her eyes.

"A-Akane? What have I done?"

"I'm going to CASTRATE you, _P-chan_!"

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit," he screamed, trying to run away from the furious girl. "Akane, let me explain! It's all Ranma's fault!"

"How is it Ranma's fault, you pig-pervert! Now stand still and let me kill you!"

Ryoga leaped into a space clear of other students and, with a cry of "Shi Shi Hokodan" there was a blast of green light around him, which lifted Akane off of her feet and stunned her temporarily. The spectators quickly scattered to watch from a distance.

"Ranma!" Ryoga turned to the other boy with hatred in his expression. "You told her!"

"You couldn't expect to keep it a secret forever, Ryoga. I'd suggest that you run before she finishes getting back to her feet."

"I'm going to kill you Ranma!"

With that, Ryoga charged at Ranma, who met him head on. Their contact was like the crash of two colliding freight trains. The other students present watched in awe as the two boys fought, trading blows and kicks which struck with the force of sledgehammers. Trees shook violently as bodies slammed into them. Craters were dug into the ground. Punches and kicks knocked one another several meters through the air at a time.

Ryoga came charging once again at Ranma, but at the last moment another figure stepped in front of him. His eyes widened in shock at the nuclear fury in Akane's eyes as he tried to swerve aside, knowing that it was already far too late. A powerful kick slammed into his chest with all of the force of a wrecking ball, and Ryoga flew back over the school wall to land outside with an echoing boom. Akane quickly ran down to the school gate and then back along the wall on the outside, with Ranma close behind trying to restrain her, but by the time they arrived their opponent was no longer in sight. All that was visible was the crater where he struck the road.

"I guess he managed to get lost again before we got out here," Ranma conjectured.

"Good riddance!" spat Akane.

Ranma sighed, deciding to let his fiancée get over her temper on her own, and found himself thankful that they'd already had their workout for the day. He only hoped that no one would get on her wrong side before she settled down. Silently, they walked back into the school together to go to their first class of the day.

* * *

Without discussing it, neither Akane nor Ranma mentioned Ryoga's appearance. Akane because the entire betrayal was still too raw, and Ranma because he felt that there was little to fear from it. He figured that even if Ryoga did tell anyone else that he had seen them, he probably wouldn't remember where he had been at the time.

One evening shortly thereafter, Kasumi was looking a little depressed. It was during dinner, and she was merely pushing her food around the plate without eating it. "I wish we had some way to talk safely with father and Nabiki," she finally admitted when pressed. "I find that I miss them more than I had expected, and I would like to hear how our sister is doing at the university."

"Well, we could probably find some way to send word to them without anyone being able to trace it back here," Ranma responded contemplatively, "but I don't see how you're going to arrange for them to send word to us without anyone being able to find where it is going. You can't use one of your friends in Nerima as a go-between; she'd be threatened until she revealed where we are."

"I know Ranma, I was just wishing," Kasumi said softly. She pushed herself away from the table and picked up her still full plate to take it into the kitchen.

"Hold on a minute, I may have an idea," Akane put in. She frowned furiously down at the table as she thought for a few minutes, then looked up and nodded as if to herself. "It would probably be pretty easy to find Nabiki's email address at the university. What if we could come up with some anonymous email address of our own, that couldn't be used to trace back to our real address? Then we could communicate with Nabiki by email, and we could also send her letters to print out for the rest of the families."

Her fiancé replied as devil's advocate. "Wouldn't we have to give our real address to the people providing the email address? To send us the bill if for no other reason? Even if we didn't, we'd have to make sure not to use someplace located here in Sendai."

"Not necessarily, Ranma," Tofu said thoughtfully. "We should be able to make this work. A lot of places would want our address, but not all of them, as long as they get paid. I can pay the bill myself with a credit card, which wouldn't provide an address for anyone to trace us back here, and we should be able to find an email provider of some sort in Tokyo just by searching for it online. I don't see how anybody could find us with that setup."

Akane began to shake her head before he was finished speaking. "But it might let them find out that you're involved, which would give them additional information to help them in finding us that I'd rather they not have. We don't want the people giving us the email address to know anything about your name." Her face then brightened and she gave a cunning look toward her sister, still standing near the entrance to the kitchen, plate in hand. "On the other hand, everyone already knows that Kasumi is here with us, and she has a full-time job now, so what if she were to apply for a credit card? Then we could get the email account in her name and take it from there."

"That sounds reasonable to me," Kasumi said, much more cheerfully than before. "I'm throwing away credit card offers every other day, it seems. I believe there was one in today's mail. I'll just fish it out and send it in tomorrow."

"Okay, and I'll get on the computers at work tomorrow and see if I can find Nabiki's email address at the university, as well as an email provider of the sort that we need." Akane added enthusiastically.

"So what computer will we use for this?" Ranma wanted to know. "The computer where you work, Akane?"

"Well, we could probably use computers at the public library instead," she said with a frown, not caring for the suggestion that all communication might have to funnel through her.

"Actually, I think I have a better idea," Tofu declared. "I've been thinking for a while about purchasing a personal computer for myself. This simply provides a good excuse for doing so right away."

"Cool!" cheered Ranma. "Can we get some games to play on it, too?" Akane went to bop him on the head for impertinence, then changed her mind and seconded his suggestion.

* * *

A few days later, while checking her email between classes, Nabiki found an unexpected message waiting for her in her inbox.

_Greetings, sister._

_It has been a while since the last time I wrote to you, and I hope that you will find this message more pleasant than was the last. As you can see, I have obtained an email account. Feel free to share the information about this account with Father and Mr. and Mrs. Saotome, or to provide them with printouts of this and future messages. I believe that we were careful enough in setting up this account that no one will be able to discover our location through it._

_I miss you little sister, and I miss knowing how things are going with you. Are you enjoying your classes at the university? What courses did you finally decide upon? Is it all that you hoped it would be?_

_I have to wonder how father took our defection. Was he very angry at us? After the wedding fiasco, I could see no other course of action than the one we took. Things simply could not continue on as they had been. I hope that he will forgive me eventually._

_As for us, we are settling in nicely in our new environment. Akane and Ranma are enjoying their new high school. There has been a little bit of trouble with some fighting, but nothing on the scale that happened at Furinkan. Believe it or not, Ranma is actually getting fairly decent grades, only a little below Akane's, and he studies hard with her every night._

_So far, we have remained undiscovered by anyone, which has made life pleasantly quiet and uneventful. Thank you, sister, for so faithfully abiding by our wishes in this matter. I will admit some degree of surprise that Cologne, at least, has not appeared yet._

_Please assure father and the Saotome's that Akane and Ranma are keeping up with their martial arts, working out at a nearby dojo twice a day, both before school and in the evening. Ranma is actually training Akane seriously, and it is remarkable to hear the happiness in her voice as she proudly shows off her bruises to me. Ranma says that by the end of summer break, he thinks she'll be up to the level that he was at when he arrived in Nerima. By the end of the school year, he'd be willing to bet on her against any martial artist in Nerima._

_As you have probably guessed, we have all taken employment to provide for our new life here. Akane and Ranma both have after school jobs, and I am working full-time, so we're managing all right financially. It turned out that Ranma had a little more money saved up than I think his father could possibly have realized, and I wonder if you ever guessed either. I'm afraid it was pretty much consumed by our initial costs and the school fees. They are both planning to work additional jobs during the summer break to replenish those savings, and to save some money for college next year. I am sure you will understand that! Would you have believed that Ranma is actually hoping to attend college? I wonder what his father will have to say about that._

_Please inform father and the Saotome's that Akane and Ranma have been going out together on official dates every week, in addition to the time they spend together studying, training, and so forth. I have even occasionally walked in on them kissing. Hard to imagine our little sister indulging in romantic activities with a boy, isn't it? Although I think they would have started much sooner if only they could have been left in peace._

_One more thing. If you happen to see that boy, Hibiki, please inform him for Akane that he is no longer welcome anywhere in her presence. Actually, she put it far less politely than that. I hope that you also were unaware that he bears a Jusenkyo curse which turns him into a pig, and that he has been playing the part of P-chan. His behavior was inexcusable, and I would hope that every member of our family will make that clear to him._

_Your loving, though absent, sister,_

_Kasumi_

Nabiki read through the surprising text a second time as she tried to collect her scattered wits. There were so many items of news in there that it made her mind reel. Ryoga is P-chan? The perverted little bastard, using her sister like that! No longer welcome indeed. Ranma planning to go to college? Ranma actually training Akane seriously? Would the sun rise in the west tomorrow?

She automatically began checking to see whether the email account from which this was sent could provide any clue to her sisters' location, despite Kasumi's claim to the contrary, not that she had much hope. It would be all too easy to arrange things to prevent that, even if her sisters were not as skilled at such subterfuge as she was herself. While doing so, she also printed out copies of the email to mail to her father and to Ranma's mother.

After thinking for a few minutes she hit the "reply" button and typed.

_Hello sis._

_It's great to hear from you, although you really surprised me as well. You should have more consideration than to put so many shocks into one email. Ryoga (no I didn't know about the pervert). Ranma getting good grades (!) and planning on college. Ranma training Akane for real. Ranma dating and even daring to kiss Akane. Have a little pity for the state of my mind, please._

_My own classes are going very well, thank you, and I am thoroughly enjoying the university. My little sources of income are still going well, although I took quite a cut with Akane's and Ranma's disappearance. Please let them know that I expect them to make that up to me. :)_

_Father is currently living alone at home. Ranma's mother has moved back into her own house now that repairs are complete, and she ordered his father to go find Ranma and not to return home until he had done so. At this time we don't know where he is. Hopefully, wherever he is, it is nowhere near you three._

_My contacts in Nerima report that the Kuno's and Amazons are still trying to locate you, though apparently without much success yet, at least that I know of. Mousse is keeping out of sight a lot, as Shampoo is reportedly even more short-tempered with him than usual. There is nothing new to report about Ukyo. From what I hear, she is attending school and running her restaurant, and is said to be walking around in a visible state of depression. There is no indication that she is attempting to find you._

_Are you planning to make any visits home before the end of the school year? Are we going to be invited to the graduation? What are you doing yourself, Kasumi, aside from your job and, I assume, the housework and cooking? I have to tell you, with all of the other shocks you sprang on me in your email, if you said that Akane had finally learned how to cook, I'd be willing to believe you. Well, maybe not._

_Your most sincerely shocked sister,_

_Nabiki_

* * *

On a bright June day, Shampoo was waiting tables and serving ramen to the last few lunch customers at the Nekohanten, while her great-grandmother was cooking in back and Mousse was out purchasing supplies. Her thoughts turned, as they so often did, to her wandering husband and the girl he had wandered off with.

‹Ranma, where are you? Why did you leave me? Can't you see how much I love you? Why would you run off with a plain, clumsy tomboy who can't cook and isn't anywhere near as good a warrior, when you could have me? You can't really love her more than me? No! That's not possible. You must accept me eventually, it is inevitable, and when you do the daughters we have will be the greatest warriors ever!›

She wished Cologne would release her from her duties at the restaurant to go track him down. Had she not proven her ability to do so, when she tracked him all the way from their village in China to Nerima in Japan, even though she had not known of his Jusenkyo curse at the time? She was confident that she could find him within a few weeks if she were not tied down here, but her elder would not listen to reason on the subject.

"Excuse me, miss, could I have some lunch please?"

Shampoo spun around at the familiar voice. "Ryoga! Have not seen you in long time."

"Shampoo? Am I back in Nerima, then?"

"Yes, silly. Have seen Ranma or Akane recently?"

"Yeah, about a week ago ..."

Shampoo almost flew back into the kitchen as soon as she heard his "yeah," leaving Ryoga talking to empty air. "Great-grandmother! Ryoga here! He see Ranma a week ago!"

"Well don't just stand there child! Bring him back here so we can talk. We'll feed him at the table in here."

Shampoo grabbed Ryoga's hand and dragged him into the kitchen where Cologne was working over the stove. She pushed him down in a chair at a table there, and put a bowl of ramen in front of him. "Here lunch. Now talk, pig-boy. Where Ranma?"

"Isn't he here in Nerima?"

"Argh. No. He and Akane run away together, no can find so far. You see them, you know where they are."

"Oh. I see. I am sorry Shampoo, but I'm afraid that, well, you know me. I have no idea of what town I was in at the time. All I remember is that Akane was trying to kill me, because Ranma broke his word and told her about my curse. She didn't even give me a chance to try to explain."

"Never mind that, boy," Cologne put in abruptly. "Tell us what you can remember seeing at the time."

Ryoga pondered. "Well, Akane was wearing a dark blue dress, I think it was a school uniform. There were several trees around, because I remember being slammed into them. Also, there was a high wall, because Akane kicked me over it."

Cologne's eyes rolled upward. "Any recognizable buildings? Landforms? Other landmarks?"

"Well, I do remember some tall buildings. Oh, and there were some mountains nearby."

Shampoo grabbed her hair and tugged at it, as if trying to rip it out of her scalp. "That useless, lost boy. Need something can tell us what town is in."

"Sorry Shampoo, I just don't know. Would you like to come with me and I can see if I can find them again?"

Shampoo considered this with a touch of apprehension. Following Ryoga would be a sure way to find oneself wandering all over bizarre places for a long time, but he did seem to have a knack for finding his way back to Akane or Ranma eventually. She looked at her grandmother with a mixture of dread and hope.

Cologne saw both her hope and her apprehension and shook her head. "No, I cannot spare you from the restaurant for the months it might well take before Ryoga finds his way back to them. I still hope to hear something from my own contacts soon."

"It been nearly three months, great-grandmother."

"I know child. I have people making inquiries at high schools throughout Japan, and they must do more than make a single phone call to the school, since someone may have been bribed to lie for them. There are a great many high schools, I'm afraid, but we're certain to locate them sooner or later."

Shampoo gave a long-suffering sigh, but forbore to make further comment. In the meantime, Ryoga had finished his ramen, but had a question or two of his own.

"Now, do I understand you to say that Ranma is living alone somewhere with Akane?" he asked with deep displeasure in his voice.

Cologne answered before Shampoo could speak. "Not quite alone, we understand that Kasumi is living with them. Knowing the oldest Tendo girl, I am fairly sure that she would not allow son-in-law to engage in any improper behavior with Akane, at least not until, I mean _if_, they decide to get married."

Ryoga considered this, and then nodded in agreement. The idea of anyone engaging in improper conduct anywhere around Kasumi was preposterous.

"Okay. But I'm going to find them again, then I'm going to beat Ranma to a pulp for forcing Akane to do this, and explain the truth to her. I'll tell you what, if I find them before you do, I'll call you from where they are and describe everything around me to you until you can figure out what town I'm in."

Cologne stared at Ryoga until he started fidgeting, then suggested, "Or, you could just read the town's name to us off of the telephone directory, or grab some passerby and ask him."

Ryoga had the grace to look embarrassed. "Uh, yeah, I guess that I could do that also. Well, the sooner I start, the sooner I'm likely to find them. Good-bye."

He got up and, after a side trip into the basement, left by the back door of the café. Mousse was on his way back with the supplies he had been sent to purchase, and saw the other boy leaving. For once, Mousse had his glasses on. ‹Hmm, that looks like Ryoga. I wonder what he was doing here?›

As Ryoga passed him, he heard the lost boy mumbling to himself. "I wonder what town Masamune High School is in, anyway?"

Mousse blinked once or twice at the odd question, but continued on into the café, where he found Cologne and Shampoo arguing about where Ranma might be and Ryoga's inability to provide any clues as to his location. Apparently Ryoga had encountered Ranma recently. This cast an entirely different light on what Mousse had just heard outside.

‹Masamune High School is where Ryoga must have found Ranma. If I provide this information to Shampoo, she'll be ecstatic, and will likely smile at me. On the other hand, it will allow her to find Ranma, after which she'll leave to pursue him again. No, I think it best to just say nothing of this.›

Mousse smiled enigmatically to himself, and started putting away the things he had just brought in.


	10. End of First Term

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

Warning: brief lime scenes in this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 10. End of First Term**

One Friday evening not long before the end of term, Akane and Ranma returned to the apartment from ice skating, faces still flushed from their exertions. It had taken a great deal of practice, but Ranma had finally become an excellent skater. Standing just inside the door, knowing that Kasumi and Tofu had planned to go to a movie tonight and would not be back for at least another hour, Ranma pulled Akane into his arms and kissed her deeply. As they felt the passion rise strongly within themselves, they pulled each other into an even tighter embrace.

"Mmm, God your lips taste good Akane!"

"Well don't stop," she replied, pulling him back so that their lips met again. After a few minutes, however, when they shifted position slightly, Ranma's skates hit him in the back from where they were slung over his shoulder. he winced and pulled away.

"What do you say we put our skates away, and then I'll meet you in your bedroom to continue this. Okay?"

"Okay, Ranma," she said a little huskily. "Don't take too long."

"Don't worry. I'll be right with you."

But when he threw open his bedroom door and strode in, he found a situation which made him stop short in shock after two steps. Kasumi was sitting in Tofu's lap on the bed, their lips locked together, and Tofu's arm was clearly under Kasumi's shirt. The outline of his fingers could be easily traced through the thin material, and those fingers were engaged in an activity which was anything but innocent. Tofu's eyes widened in surprise as they locked with Ranma's.

"Oh crap," Ranma said. "Sorry, sorry, sorry," as he backed out the door, closing it behind him.

He walked across the hall and into the other bedroom where Akane was waiting for him. The smile faded from her face and a look of concern replaced it, as she took in the dazed expression which he wore.

"Ranma, what is it? What's wrong?"

"Tofu. Kasumi. Improper. Urgh."

"What? They weren't ... I mean, they wouldn't ... they're not even engaged!" Akane realized that she was blushing very brightly.

Ranma managed to get his brain operating again. "No, no. They're not ... doing _that_. Just ... a _little_ improper. Um." He made a gesture in the vicinity of his chest, and realized that he was also blushing.

"Oh." Akane giggled. "Even that's pretty hard to believe. Good heavens, prim and proper Kasumi, who'd have believed it? Wait until I tell Nabiki!" She giggled again.

Ranma cocked an eye at her. "I must say you're taking it more calmly than I am. It's going to take a while for me to get over the shock. I think that I'll go out and see what's on television. Want to join me?"

She pouted then shrugged. "Maybe later, I still need to finish putting away my laundry." She pointed to the clothes lying on her futon, where they had been left earlier that day.

A little later Kasumi, looking completely unmussed, joined Akane in the bedroom. "So what did Ranma say to you?" she asked Akane, sounding casually curious.

"He only mentioned that he accidently walked in on you and Tofu making out in the other bedroom, and that you were being, in his words, a _little_ improper."

Kasumi giggled. "Perhaps I should make little 'occupied' signs to hang on the bedroom doors, like the one we had for the furoba back in Nerima."

Akane snorted. "It never seemed to do a whole lot of good there."

"And how well are you and Ranma getting along these days? Is he trying to be a little improper with you?"

Akane blushed. "All we've done so far is kiss, although the shock you gave him seems to have spoiled most of that for tonight. I ... I think I might be ready for a little more, but it's not something I can come out and ask him to do!" She was now blushing even more furiously.

Kasumi nodded sagely, but forbore to give advice. After all of the pressure which had been applied to these two in the past, she judged it far wiser to leave them alone to find their own way.

"There's something else that's bothering me a little, that maybe you can help me out with, Kasumi. There's a school dance coming up at the end of term, and I'd like to go, but so far Ranma hasn't asked me! I don't know if he just hasn't thought about it, or if he's taking it for granted that I'll go with him."

"It could be either one, or even that he wants to ask you but is unsure if you want to go. After all, neither one of you have a very good track record of being able to enjoy school events. If you'd like, I can ask Tofu to drop a hint into his ear."

"Thanks, Kasumi. I'd appreciate that."

A little later, the message having been passed along, Tofu joined Ranma out in the living room.

"Hey, doc! Sorry about interrupting you earlier."

Tofu waved this aside. "Don't worry about it Ranma, you didn't know we'd decided to change our plans tonight, so you had every reason to expect the apartment to be empty. We should have been paying enough attention to hear the front door when you came in."

"I suppose. It was still pretty embarrassing."

Tofu grinned. "I'll bet. For all the things you've seen in your life, you're still a remarkably shy young man, Ranma."

Ranma hoped he wasn't blushing, but feared that he was.

"So, I understand your school has a dance coming up soon," the doctor continued.

Ranma felt his face grow even hotter. "Uh, yeah? Where'd you hear about that? I've been thinking about it off and on, wondering whether to go. Akane and I had some pretty bad experiences with school functions back at Furinkan, so I'm not sure whether she'd want to go to this. Not quite sure how I feel about it, either."

Tofu contrived to look puzzled. "You're not sure whether she wants to go? Haven't you talked about it with her?"

"Ah, well. Not exactly. Not yet."

Tofu pursed his lips and shook his head slightly. "Well, Ranma, you ought to be learning by now that the right way to find out what she wants is to talk to her, not to try to guess what she wants or to make up your mind by yourself. As a matter of fact, a little bird told me that she would like to go to the dance, with her boyfriend, but she expects to be asked."

"Oh," Ranma replied, rather sheepishly. "You're right, I ought to know better by now. I guess I'll ask her then."

"That's the spirit. You coming to bed soon?"

Ranma shook his head slightly, turning back to the television. "Naw, I've gotten interested in this movie. It'll be on for another hour or so."

"Okay. Kasumi and I have plans for early tomorrow, though, so I'm going to turn in now." Tofu turned back toward the hall.

"Good-night doc. See you tomorrow."

A few minutes after Tofu's departure, Akane came out dressed in her pajamas, and joined Ranma on the couch. She drew her feet up underneath herself, and leaned up against his shoulder. "Kasumi's gone to bed already. She said that she and Tofu are going out early tomorrow."

"Yeah, that's what he told me too. He's gone to bed also."

Akane looked at the television. The character on screen at the moment seemed to have a rather cold and metallic smile. "Whatcha watching?" she asked.

Ranma shrugged to indicate that he was clueless as to the title. "It's a spy movie. Some bad guys have stolen an American space shuttle, and a British agent is trying to find out what's going on. The plot somehow involves some nerve gas, as well."

"Oh." She turned her attention to the television, and started watching as well. Some time passed.

"Akane?"

"Mmm?"

Ranma sounded a little apologetic as he addressed the issue Tofu had brought to his attention. "You know, there's a dance coming up at the school soon. I wasn't too sure about it, since that kind of thing has been a bit unlucky for us in the past, but would you like to go?"

Akane smiled. "We haven't really had too much trouble at this school so far. I think I'd like to go with you. Thanks for asking."

"Sure thing." The boy now sounded relieved.

They turned their attention back to the movie again but, when they noticed that the final credits were rolling, they realized that at some point they had started kissing, and they had no idea how the movie had concluded. On further consideration, they decided that this was fine with them, and turned in for the night to have some pleasant dreams.

* * *

On the night of the school dance, Akane emerged from her bedroom wearing a red, clinging, off-the-shoulder dress. Tofu caught sight of her first and his eyes widened with appreciation. He nudged Ranma who turned around, saw Akane, and suddenly found it difficult to remember how to breathe.

"Wow, Akane! That dress looks ... wow! You look great!"

Akane gave him a slight bow, and looked admiringly at the figure he cut in his suit. "Thank you, Ranma. You look pretty good yourself. While I do like your Chinese shirts, it's nice to see you wearing other styles like that once in awhile."

Ranma proffered his arm. "Shall we, my lady?"

She smiled and took the arm. "Yes, let's."

They left the apartment and entered the taxi which Ranma had called, rather than walking to the school. A few minutes later he was helping Akane to step out of the cab, where they joined other couples entering the school gates. The night was quite warm, and even a little humid.

"Hey Ranma, Tendo-san!" Daiki, one of Ranma's friends, was waving at them. His other arm was linked with that of one of Akane's friends, Rinko. They walked over and joined the other couple.

"I didn't think that you two were planning to come tonight," Rinko admitted. "While everybody else has been talking about the dance for weeks, you two never said a word."

Akane punched Ranma's arm. "This baka here only asked me last week."

Daiki smirked. "Not too smart, Ranma. You need to learn to treat your girl better than that."

"Pay attention to him, Ranma," Akane teased, making as if to punch him again. He pulled his arm back protectively.

"Okay, okay. Jeez."

Everyone laughed, and they all walked into the gym where the band was just finishing setting up. As the evening progressed, Akane and Ranma enjoyed several dances together, getting to hold each other closely during some of them. At other times they rested and drank punch, while chatting with friends. About three hours in, as a dance was winding down, Akane placed her mouth close to her fiancé's ear. "It's getting awfully warm in here, Ranma. Why don't we step outside for a while to cool down?"

Ranma nodded, feeling somewhat overheated himself. He took her hand and led the way to the door, out into the school grounds, and around the side of the school. They bypassed several other couples, heading for a spot that was fairly private, beyond some trees near the wall. There was even a bench there, on which Ranma sat, pulling Akane down onto his lap. Their lips met, and soon they were so deeply involved with one another that they lost all track of the dance they had left behind.

While they kissed, Ranma was slowly stroking Akane's back, while she was rubbing the back of his head and neck. He brought his other hand around, and gently brushed the backs of his fingers along her cheek and neck, sending shivers down her spine. As he went to put his arm around her again, he misjudged his position and brushed his hand across her breast. He winced inwardly at his clumsiness, expecting her to break off the kiss and have some sharp words with him, but instead she moaned strongly into his mouth and seemed to press herself against him even more firmly.

Ranma froze for a moment, remembering the scene he had inadvertently witnessed between Tofu and Kasumi, and how he had wanted to do something like that with Akane but hadn't dared. Unexpectedly, Akane had not objected to his accidental caress; she had even seemed to enjoy it. Slowly, and with much trepidation, expecting to get slapped or worse at any moment, he brought his left hand back up and lightly caressed her breast again. He was rewarded with another moan. He placed his hand there again, and started to lightly squeeze and caress her, remembering how his touches had felt on his own breasts the few times he had experimented in his cursed form. Akane started kissing him even more passionately, and at one point even tilted her head back and whispered, "oh, yesss Ranma."

Ranma continued to give part of his attention to his kisses and the hand which was still stroking her back, but another part of his attention was definitely on what his other hand was doing. After a while he decided to give equal attention to her other breast, and then slowly alternated between them. He was painfully rigid against the underside of her left thigh where she was sitting in his lap, and both of them were starting to breathe very raggedly.

It was doubtful whether, left to themselves, they would ever have stopped. However at some point somebody started honking a car horn, from the direction of the parking lot, and the noise broke the spell they were under. Ranma dropped his hand, and they pulled their faces apart, each taking note of the intense desire staring out of the other's eyes.

"There's no question that I'm here with the most beautiful girl in school, tonight," he told her breathlessly, in a voice made deeper by emotion and longing.

"Oh, Ranma," she replied in a very husky voice, "and I'm with the most handsome, wonderful guy in all of Japan."

"I suppose we ought to think about leaving," Ranma suggested reluctantly.

"Hmm. I suppose so. Another taxi?"

"Naw. I thought we'd walk home. It's getting kind of late to get a taxi."

Akane frowned slightly. "I don't think that's such a good idea, Ranma. My dress and shoes weren't exactly made for long walks through the streets."

He gave her his urchin grin. "I could carry you. I don't mind." Without waiting to hear any objection, Ranma swept her up into his arms, startling her into grabbing convulsively at his neck.

"It's over a kilometer back to the apartment," Akane protested.

"Aw, heck, Akane. I've carried you further than that before!" Feeling well-pleased with himself, Ranma began to walk toward the school gates. Akane was very conscious of their appearance, and some of the things her classmates called out to them made her feel warm with embarrassment. But at the same time, it felt very nice. They slowly moved through the darkness toward their home. She lay her cheek against his chest, and allowed herself to be overwhelmed by a feeling of utter peace and contentment, lying there in his strong arms.

"I'm not too heavy for you, am I?" Akane asked when they were about half-way there.

"Not at all," was the gallant reply.

Once they reached their apartment it was clear that Tofu and Kasumi had already retired for the evening, unsurprising as it was now well past midnight. Ranma sat down on the couch and pulled Akane back down into his arms, and they exchanged some more kisses. After several minutes of this, Ranma paused, and looked at the girl in his arms tenderly. "Akane, do you remember when we were deciding to do this, to come live here?"

"Of course," she murmured contentedly, eyes closed.

"And do you remember how I told you that I cared about you a lot, and that I probably loved you, but sometimes I wasn't completely sure?"

"Mmm-hmmm."

Ranma took a deep breath. "Well ... I'm sure now. I love you, Akane Tendo. I love you with all of my heart, and I never want to lose you. I don't have any doubts anymore."

Akane snuggled against him closer and gave a deep sigh, treasuring the moment and the words she had so longed to hear.

"I love you too, Ranma Saotome," she whispered, opening her shining eyes and gazing into his with a sort of fierce determination. "Always and forever, and I'm never letting you go again. I'm yours, and you're mine, and anyone who tries to get between us is toast."

He chuckled. "Agreed." His face then became a little more solemn. "Um, about earlier tonight, on the bench. You don't mind ...?" He broke off, unable to complete the question.

Akane smiled at him and shook her head. "No Ranma, I don't mind," she said softly. "In fact, I enjoyed it. I thought I made that pretty clear at the time. I don't want to move too fast, but I don't really want to have to give you engraved invitations, either."

Ranma smiled crookedly. "I'll try to keep it in mind. It probably won't be easy for me though. After all, there was this tomboy who kept calling me a 'pervert' and hitting me over the head with a mallet whenever she thought I was behaving improperly. That sort of thing tends to make an impression, even on a hard head like mine. I would hate to do anything to bring her back."

Akane sighed sadly. "I'm sorry about that, Ranma. It wasn't really because of you, or what you did, or anything like that; I think I acted that way because I was afraid of my own feelings and that was the only way that I knew how to deal with them. Please try not to worry, I'm sure that girl is gone for good. And I do want to know that you find me desirable. I promise, if you go too fast for me, I'll let you know without bringing out the mallet."

"Thanks Akane, and I'll try. That's the best I can say. You're too precious to me to risk screwing things up."

* * *

The school term had finally ended. Akane and Ranma found summer jobs to fill the time when they would normally be in classes; Ranma doing construction work and Akane helping out in a daycare center. A few days after the term, they came back to the apartment for a late lunch before going on to the hospital and medical center for their long-term jobs, and among the mail Akane pulled out of the mailbox were a couple of official school envelopes addressed to Ranma and herself.

"Ranma, we got some letters from school. I think that our first term grades have arrived."

They went upstairs into the apartment, and opened the envelopes before worrying about lunch. They each looked them over for a couple of minutes before speaking.

"Two A's, an A-, and one each of a B, B, and B-," Akane reported for herself. "Averages out to a B+. Shoot, I thought that I was doing better than just a B in English."

"It's better than my C in English. Also an A, in gym of course, a B, two B-'s, and a C+. Seems to be a B- average. Well, I'm just going to have to pull some of those up, especially the English and Math. I'd like to have all A's and B's for my college application."

"Actually, I'm surprised that you managed the C+ in math," she said, looking at the report over his shoulder. "You've always just barely managed to avoid failing it before."

"Yeah, well those kisses you give me when I solve problems correctly are a great motivator," he responded. "Still, maybe I need a little more motivation in order to bring it up more."

Akane grinned and punched him in the arm. "You're getting all the motivation of that sort you're going to get for now, buster."

"My tomboy isn't willing to help me succeed in math," he wailed, while winking at her at the same time.

"You need to pull up the history grade as well, baka. You should be getting an A in that course, not just a B."

Ranma cast his eyes down, making a pretense of heavy shame. "Sorry. Sure, I'm pretty good with Japanese history, and Chinese too. But they expect me to know all of these other countries as well." He sighed, dropping the pretense. "I will do better at it next term, I promise."

"You'd better. Enough about your grades, now. We need to eat lunch and catch the bus to our other jobs."

"Slave driver!" he complained while stepping into the kitchen to make their lunch.

"Yep, and don't you forget it!"

* * *

Later that evening, Akane found an email from Nabiki waiting when she logged on. Eagerly, she opened it and began to read.

_Hey sis, sis, Ranma_

_Daddy wants to know if you could consider coming home for a visit during summer break? He says he misses you, and won't put any pressure on you about weddings. I'm not entirely certain whether to believe him, but that's what he says. ..._

There was more to the e-mail than that, but the suggestion stopped Akane short. She closed the window while she thought about it. Her father's betrayal in the matter of P-chan/Ryoga was a hidden, bleeding wound - one that she felt she couldn't share even with Kasumi - and which she didn't want to share with Ranma. She felt like such a fool over the entire thing, and her father had let her.

But on the other hand, she didn't feel that she had the right to keep Kasumi from going home and Akane admitted to herself that she wouldn't mind seeing Nabiki again, and maybe even some of her old friends. She decided that on the whole, she wouldn't much mind going back for a short visit. After all, she could probably avoid talking to her father very much.

After discussing this with the others, she sat back down and replied.

_Hi Nabiki_

_Tell father we'll think about it but, just between you and us, we're not sure how much we can trust him yet. Also, both Ranma and I are working two jobs each during summer break, so it would be sort of difficult to take time off, not to mention the money we wouldn't make if we did, and we need that money. But we will think about it._

_Akane_


	11. Proposals

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 11. Proposals**

One Friday night, about three weeks after the end of school, Akane and Ranma were sitting on the couch cuddling and kissing. They had returned from ice skating a couple of hours earlier, but Tofu and Kasumi were still out on their own date somewhere.

"Mmmm." Akane was voicing her pleasure, but then her eyelids suddenly flew open and she scowled playfully. "Hey, hands above the waist, buster!"

"Sorry 'kane. You mean like this?"

"Oooh. Yes, like that." Her lips met his again. However, only a short time passed before his hands had once more wandered too far and she found it necessary to repeat the warning.

Ranma sat back, looking at her with a concerned expression, one hand reaching behind his head to nervously twist his pigtail. "You know, it is getting harder to keep my hands from trying to explore new territories."

Akane gave him a speculative look. "Well, it's not necessarily easy for me either. Maybe if you put a ring on my finger someday, I'll consider letting your hands scout some additional frontiers."

Ranma cocked his head to one side, considering the suggestion. "Hmm. Maybe I will, at that."

They both heard a key in the apartment door at the same time, and shifted into slightly more innocent positions, although any onlooker could make a pretty good guess about what they'd just been up to. A moment later the door opened, and Tofu and Kasumi walked in. Tofu looked incredibly self-satisfied and happy, and Kasumi looked like she was walking on air.

"Hello you two," Tofu called out. "Behaving yourselves, I hope?"

"Heh, I might ask you two the same thing," Ranma replied.

Akane ignored the joking, as her attention was riveted on her sister, specifically on the awkward, self-conscious way that Kasumi was holding her left hand. "Kasumi ...?" Akane started to ask, a bit breathlessly. "Is that what I think it is?" Her voice ended in a squeal, pointing at Kasumi's left hand. Kasumi's smile grew even brighter and Tofu took hold of her hand in a proprietary fashion.

"If you think it's an engagement ring," he responded, "then the answer is definitely 'yes'. Tonight, I asked Kasumi to marry me, and she said yes." His own smile threatened to become manic as he reported on his new fiancée's affirmative answer.

The two teenagers leapt off of the couch, Akane crushing her older sister in a hug, while Ranma slapped Tofu on the back as hard as he could, causing the other man to stumble.

"Congratulations! It's about time! When's the wedding?"

"We haven't really talked about that yet, Ranma," Kasumi answered, sounding breathless in turn, either from the excitement of the moment or from the lack of air which Akane's hug had squeezed from her lungs. "Since we'll want everyone to be able to attend, including the two of you, then winter break would be the earliest reasonable time, with the break after the end of the school year the next most likely. Unless we decide to put it off even longer."

Tofu pulled Kasumi against his side, and countered her last sentence with a rakish grin, "Not that I feel inclined to put it off for very long, mind you."

"The hardest thing is that we can't tell the rest of the family yet," Kasumi said, with just a touch of sorrow. "Not without giving away the fact that we're living near Tofu." She sighed deeply. "That might be enough of a clue for someone to find us."

"Well, maybe it's time to take that risk," Akane ventured hesitantly. She followed her words with a shrug. "Of course, we don't have to make such decisions tonight."

Kasumi smiled, then took Tofu's hand, pulling him down to kiss him, shyly, on the cheek. He turned his head, making it into a real kiss, then began half escorting, half hustling her down the hall. They disappeared into the boys' bedroom.

"I suspect it's going to be a while before I can go to bed," Ranma observed, grinning wolfishly toward Akane. "So, what will we find to do in the meantime?"

* * *

About a week and a half later, Akane and Ranma returned to the apartment for lunch in the period between their jobs. When Ranma went into the kitchen to prepare their lunches, Akane noticed a long rip in the side of his shirt, toward the back, and called his attention to it. Ranma closed the refrigerator door and felt for the tear.

"Huh! I must have ripped it at work this morning." He pulled the tear open enough to reveal a long red streak underneath. "Seems I scratched myself too. Doesn't look too serious though. Guess I'll have to remember to change my shirt before we leave." He opened the refrigerator door again to pull out items for their lunch.

Akane smiled mischievously and suggested, "Go ahead and take off your shirt and give it to me. I'll dump it in the hamper and get you a new one while you work on our lunch, okay?"

"Yeah, thanks, 'kane" he replied inattentively, his thoughts already back on the food. He tugged his shirt over his head and handed it to her, and resumed what he was doing. Akane took a moment to enjoy the line of his back and his hard, muscular shoulders and arms before she went down the hall with the torn shirt.

A moment later she was back, without a shirt, looking like she had just seen a ghost. She collapsed into one of the chairs around the dining table, mouth agape, staring sightlessly.

"Yo, Akane! What's up? You look like you just had a nasty shock!"

"She should have made the 'occupied' signs," Akane whispered. "I don't think they noticed me. I sure hope they didn't. Oh, how embarrassing! I should have let you get your own stupid shirt! I mean ... no, not right now, you can't ... oh, I wish I hadn't gone in there. I hope ... I hope she remembered protection."

Ranma stared at her blankly, then understanding dawned. "You mean ...? Oh, wow! Now _that's_ unexpected." He paused as something occurred to him. "I wonder what they're doing home in the middle of a workday for, anyway?"

Akane just shook her head, more in disbelief than in answer to his question. "I feel like a kid who's just walked in on her parents. Kasumi's always been a bit like a mother to me."

Ranma smirked at her. "Well, I just hope they don't take too long. I'd kinda like to have a shirt to wear when I leave for work, and I don't think one of yours or Kasumi's would look quite right."

A corner of Akane's mouth twisted up reluctantly and she shot him a sideways glance from half-closed eyes. "It would look all right if you were in your female form," she suggested.

Ranma made a face at her. "Akaaneee!" he groaned.

It wasn't until they were finishing up their lunch, that they heard doors opening and closing. A moment later, Tofu walked into the dining area wearing only a bathrobe. He saw the two of them looking up at him and blushed a bright red from the roots of his hair down as much of his chest as was visible in the gap of the robe.

"Ranma! Akane! Um, how long have the two of you been here?"

"Long enough, doc!" Ranma answered, grinning malevolently, while Akane kept her eyes fixed down at her plate, blushing as deeply as Tofu. "So, did you two decide to play hooky for the day or something?"

"Er, sort of. Kasumi was already planning to take the morning off, to do some shopping. I thought she had mentioned that to the two of you. As for me, yesterday a colleague asked me if I could cover for him at the hospital tonight, so I postponed my morning appointments. I guess I didn't think to mention it last night. Since you leave before I eat breakfast these days, you wouldn't have noticed that I was sleeping in this morning. Anyway, Kasumi returned from her shopping while you were still at work."

"Hey, doc, you remember the night of your engagement, when you asked if Akane and I were behaving ourselves? A bit of a double standard, there, huh?"

"Ranma!" Akane croaked, absolutely mortified. "Stop it, baka!"

Ranma did shut up, but couldn't stop grinning. Tofu beat a retreat to find some clothing and perhaps the remnants of his dignity. He may or may not have said anything to Kasumi on his way back, but when she emerged into the dining room, she was fully clothed. Akane couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be practically glowing.

"Hello Akane, Ranma. It's a beautiful day, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Akane replied, blushing again, and turned her eyes down, away from her sister's gaze. She stood up, pushing her chair back from the table so quickly that it scraped the floor. "Ranma, if you've finished we really do need to be going."

Kasumi was quietly amused at her younger sister's discomfiture. "Oh. Well if the two of you can wait a few more minutes for Tofu to finish dressing, then we can all ride over in the car. He and I are both working this afternoon, even if we did take the morning off."

"That sounds great, Kasumi," Ranma answered equably. "Akane, could you clear up our dishes? I need to go back there and grab a shirt now." So saying, he got up from the table and disappeared down the hall.

"Um, Kasumi?" Akane was still blushing, even more hotly. "Did you, you know, make arrangement for, um, contraception?"

"That's really none of your business, little sister," Kasumi stated rather primly. After a pause, and realizing that Akane was worried about her, she relented, saying, "However, yes, it's been taken care of."

Akane nodded and wished that she could take the bus to work. She had a feeling that she wasn't going to stop blushing until she was able to get some distance from her older sister and her sister's fiancé. She slapped herself as the image started to replay once again across her mind's eye, and she looked away quickly on catching a glimpse of the amused expression on Kasumi's face.

* * *

The Friday night after the 'incident,' as Akane had taken to referring to it in her own mind, she and Ranma went out together to one of the better and more costly restaurants in the area. They didn't patronize it very often because of the expense. Afterward, Ranma took her dancing, which he had come to enjoy. With the hour getting late, they were walking in the park before going home. Akane wasn't surprised that they seemed to be moving toward a favorite bench, which was secluded and private.

Ranma did in fact steer her to this bench, but she was surprised after they arrived, when Ranma just sat there, holding her hands in his and gazing into her eyes.

"Akane, I am so glad you agreed to this, to move here with me. This has been the happiest I've ever been in my life, this time we've spent since we moved to Sendai."

Akane ducked her head, overwhelmed by the surge of emotion which his words awoke within her. She peeked up at him through her lashes. "I've never been happier either, Ranma. It has turned out wonderfully, and I'm very glad you were able to talk me into it."

"On the night of the dance I told you that I love you, and every night since then I've just become more certain. I love you, I love being with you, I never want to be separated from you. Akane, I want to share the rest of my life with you."

He slid off of the bench to put a knee on the ground, while he pulled a box out of his pocket and opened it.

"Akane Tendo, will you make me the happiest man in the world by agreeing to be my wife?"

"Yes, oh yes, Ranma! Thank you! I want to be with you forever, to love you forever!"

There were tears sliding out of her eyes and down her cheeks, as Ranma pulled the ring out of the box and slid it onto the finger of her left hand. Then he was crushed into a hug by her strong arms, as her lips pressed forcefully against his. It was a while before they finally came up for air.

Her cheek lying on Ranma's shoulder, Akane inquired, "So, was this inspired by Tofu's proposal to Kasumi?"

Ranma snorted indignantly. "I was afraid that idea might occur to you. The answer is no, I was already thinking about this before that night, I'd even visited a jeweler's to look at rings. Which, by the way, made me wonder if you already had suspicions when you made that comment that night about putting a ring on your finger. While I was real happy for Kasumi and Tofu that they got engaged, I was also a little perturbed that Tofu got there first. But I had to finish saving up before I could buy the ring."

Akane chuckled softly. "Don't worry about it, Ranma. I'm just so thrilled that you asked me. It wasn't a contest where you had to get to the finish line first." She then pulled herself away from his close embrace and gave him a weak smile. "Of course, another way of looking at it is that we've already been engaged for over two years now, you know."

Ranma made a face and shook his head. "Nah, that was our fathers' idea, not ours. It was never real, or at least not real enough. But it is now because it's our idea. Now we really are engaged."

"Baka." Her tone made the familiar pejorative into an endearment. She took a deep breath, bracing herself, and said brightly, "So when do we tell everyone, and when do you want to get married?"

Ranma dithered for a moment, the thought of the last wedding ceremony sending a tremor through him, but he resolutely pushed those memories aside. "Well, I don't want to cheat the families out of a wedding ceremony," he stated ponderously, "and this time we'll find some way to keep it from being wrecked. It'll take some time to plan it though, so using the same reasoning as Kasumi used about their wedding date, I figure the earliest we can do it is winter break." He paused and gave her a rogue's grin. "I'll go ahead and admit that in some sense we have been engaged for a couple of years already, but that's only because I don't really want to wait too long. We're both eighteen already, so what do you think? How does winter break sound?"

"That sounds good to me, I don't want to wait too long either. How about New Year's Day? I think I like the symbolism of that. Starting a new year and a new life. Together."

"I like it too. Let's plan on it, then." He hesitated, frozen for a moment, then blurted out quickly, "Do you think Tofu and Kasumi would go for the idea of a double wedding?"

Akane's eyes widened with delight. "Oooh, yes, let's ask them!" she exclaimed. "I'd really like that and besides," her eyes dimmed and she continued a little more sadly, "speaking completely practically for a moment, I think it's a lot less likely that anyone would do anything to wreck things if it's also Kasumi's wedding."

She looked so downcast that Ranma pulled her close, holding her for comfort. Speaking into her hair, he continued planning. "All right. As far as telling everyone, what do you say we head down to Nerima in a couple of weeks for a short visit? We can announce our plans to everyone then."

Akane looked up at him with solemn concern. "Would Kasumi and Tofu come with us?" she asked dubiously.

"Well ... of course. You don't expect to announce our plans to get married and keep their engagement a secret, do you?"

"But that means we won't be keeping secret the fact that we're living with Tofu, which means that some of them might find us."

Ranma was impatient with her worries. "Of course, but we'll have to live with that. Besides, we can drive down in his car, which will make it more difficult to track us than using the trains if they're not able to find out where Tofu is living right off the bat."

Akane was not very convinced by this argument. Slowly, she said, "I'm pretty sure that they'll be able to find the city and Tofu's clinic, at least, if they look for it seriously."

Ranma shrugged this off. "Yeah, probably. Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Tugging on a lock of hair, he gave her an impish smile and asked, "So, kissing now, or go home and break the news to Kasumi and Tofu?"

Akane didn't really want to think about the difficulties which would arise when the people in Nerima found out where they were staying, so she dropped the subject as Ranma so obviously wanted and smirked back at him. "Hmmph. Kissing first, baka. Kasumi and Tofu can wait."

* * *

A little more than an hour later, the four roommates reenacted the scene from two weeks previous, except in reverse. Akane and Ranma walked in through the front door of the apartment to find Kasumi and Tofu sitting on the couch, looking far too flushed and tousled to be anywhere near as innocent as they were trying to appear.

"Hello you two," Ranma called out. "Behaving yourselves, I hope?"

Tofu caught the reference immediately. His normally cheerful face broke into a broad grin. "Whoa, deja vu, Ranma," he replied.

Ranma gave a warm chuckle. "More so than you realize yet, doc."

Kasumi's eyes zeroed in on her younger sister's left hand. "Akane! Oh MY! Really and truly?"

Akane nodded emphatically. "Yep! Really and truly. He finally asked me to marry him! We're engaged for real, now."

"Congratulations, you two!" their future brother-in-law said, unable to stop grinning from sheer happiness. "So, what with everyone else having said you've been engaged for the last couple of years, how much longer are you planning to make them wait?"

Ranma sighed, considering once again the likely reactions of various people to their announcements. He wished that there were no need to deal with anyone beyond the little group here, where the news was greeted with simple acceptance and joy. However that was not a valid option, and his smile became a little artificial as he asked Tofu for clarification. "To make them wait for what? To hear that we've accepted the engagement? Or to have the wedding?"

"Well, both actually." Tofu's own grin became a little crooked as he picked up on Ranma's mood shift, and realized what sort of thoughts were running through the boy's mind.

Ranma pulled Akane a little closer, drawing strength from her to face the prospect of having to deal with their parents again. "We were thinking that in a couple of weeks, the four of us might make a trip down to Nerima. We could announce both engagements at the same time." He looked at Akane a little uncertainly, but she just nodded her reassurance. "Akane and I don't want to wait too long, so we were thinking, maybe, of having the ceremony during winter break, on New Year's Day if we can manage it."

"New Year's Day," Tofu echoed thoughtfully, eyeing Kasumi with speculation. He had been trying to push for an earlier wedding date with her, and wondered if he might be able to turn this to his advantage. "It would be a shame for a younger sister to marry before the elder," he pronounced in a voice which made him sound like a village wise woman. Kasumi couldn't prevent a smile from touching her lips at this sally.

Akane picked up this declaration and carried it to a conclusion which Tofu had not considered. "Actually, Ranma and I already discussed the possibility of a double wedding," Akane told them, a little shyly. "We both like the idea, if you two wish to consider it."

Tofu's mind raced as he considered possibilities and reached a rapid conclusion. Grinning, to caught hold of Kasumi's hand and squeezed it, nodding his head slightly as she looked at him. Kasumi on the other hand turned to her little sister with a worried expression. "Are you sure about that, Akane? Everyone has been waiting for a couple of years for the two of you to marry, and it really should be your special day."

Akane nodded her head fervently, eyes shining with excitement. "Oh, but Kasumi, I can't think of anyone else we'd rather share that special day with more than the both of you. Think of how great it would be to go down the aisle together, you to Tofu and me to Ranma. It would be wonderful."

"Well, I ... I ... I'll think about it. It sounds nice," she said, a little wistfully. She turned to Tofu and warned, "I'm not promising anything, mind you."

"So Ranma, are you planning to dress as the bride or the groom?" Tofu chuckled. Kasumi smiled. Akane did not.

Ranma just groaned disgustedly. "Oh, ha ha. Old joke, doc."

* * *

Nabiki downloaded her email on her laptop in her bedroom, and opened the first message. She read through it again, unable to quite believe her eyes that the words she had read were in front of her. She had never expected Akane, or Ranma, to accede to the request that she had passed on from their father. But there it was in black and white, terse and to the point, and from the account that Kasumi had set up.

_Dear Nabiki,_

_Please inform father and Mr. and Mrs. Saotome that we will be arriving for a visit early Friday afternoon of the weekend after next. We will plan to leave again just after lunch on Sunday. Also please ask them to be sure not to mention this to anyone else, so that we can keep this visit a secret and not be interrupted by anyone._

_Love, Kasumi_

She printed the message out and took it downstairs to hand to her father, who looked at it blearily, as tears started to fill his eyes. "At last, my daughters are coming home! I must call Saotome at once; thank goodness he thought to give me a phone number where he can be reached! We don't have much time, less than two weeks! We must start planning at once how to convince them to get married!"

* * *

When Tofu's car pulled up in front of the Tendo compound, both Akane and Kasumi found tears in their eyes at the sight of the home they had not seen in five months. The two girls stood there, misty-eyed, looking over the wall at the upper story, unaware of Tofu and Ranma pulling the luggage out of the trunk. Then all four walked in through the gate, whereupon a squeal sounded from inside the house.

"They're here!"

A blur flew out of the front door, only resolving itself into Nabiki when she threw her arms around Kasumi, hugging tightly. The older sister patted the middle Tendo daughter gently on the back, laughing gently to herself at this emotional outburst from the usually self-controlled Nabiki.

"Gods it's good to see you. I've missed you more than I realized," Nabiki gasped out.

She let go of her older sister and then wrapped her younger in a hug. "I've missed you too, Akane. I'll bet you didn't expect to hear me say that."

Akane sniffled a bit onto Nabiki's shoulder. "I've missed you too."

Nabiki glanced up over her sister's shoulder. "Hey there, Ranma! And ... Doctor Tofu? Is that really you?"

"Yes, it is, Nabiki-chan." The doctor was grinning. Nabiki was staring at the man in shock. He was just standing there! Calmly! With Kasumi right in his line of sight! And they had apparently arrived _together_!

"Daughters!" Long hair flying behind him, their weeping father encircled both his oldest and youngest daughters in a single hug. Although Kasumi hugged him back, Akane stood stiffly, a distant, cold expression on her face. Kasumi cast a questioning look at her sister, but chose to say nothing when Akane gave a small shake of her head. Instead she filed the memory away to ask about later.

"Ranma!" Now it was the pigtailed boy's turn to be hugged as his mother launched herself at him. His father followed behind, a little more sedately, but he was actually smiling at his son.

"I don't know whether to kiss you three, or kick you," Nabiki scolded. "And what by all that is holy is Doctor Tofu doing here, and without going crazy? And ... Kasumi! ... _What_ is that on your _hand_!"

"Oh my, do you mean this?" she asked innocently, holding her left hand up for everyone to see.

"You're engaged?" she practically shouted. Nabiki looked back and forth rapidly between her happy older sister and the broadly grinning and unexpectedly sane doctor. "Do you mean you, and Doctor Tofu? Oh, that's wonderful!"

"Waah, my daughter's getting married!" Tears began gushing out of Soun Tendo's eyes. Akane had already pulled away from him, and now Kasumi stepped out from under the sudden deluge.

"Now, daddy, please stop that," Kasumi scolded. "Yes, Doctor Tofu and I are planning to get married. But I think that you've let your attention get too distracted by the ring on my hand. Take a look at Akane's hand."

All eyes turned toward Akane, as she shyly held up her left hand much the same way as Kasumi had, to let everyone see the ring on her finger. There was a sudden drawing in of breaths from four throats. Soun looked down at his youngest daughter.

"Akane? ... and ..." He seemed unable to complete the question, unable to believe. Genma finished it for him. "... Ranma?"

The two so addressed nodded their heads. Nodoka Saotome pulled her son into an even fiercer hug, forcing all of the air from his lungs and leaving him gasping for breath, while the two fathers linked arms and started dancing around the yard, crying out about how the two schools would be joined at last. The four from Sendai just rolled their eyes skyward - after all, they had all predicted that scene on the drive down. Nabiki was just staring speechlessly at her younger sister, but finally found her voice.

"You mean the two of you have finally done it? You've agreed to get married? Oh my God, quick, I need to know the exact date on which he proposed! Do you realize how much money is riding on that!"

Akane snorted. "I'm tempted not to tell you anything." Nabiki looked scared and her younger sister relented. "Okay, I will tell you, after we go inside and get settled, but only on the condition that you promise to keep everything a secret until after we leave on Sunday."

"Right, right. I promise."

When Akane turned away, her eyes swept over the two men dancing in the yard, and she couldn't control the surge of hurt betrayal she felt. Nabiki saw the younger girl's eyes become bleak, her face freezing like a mask trying to hide some emotional pain. She resolved to ask her about it later.

Everybody started filing back into the house, in order to get reacquainted more comfortably. Genma turned to Soun just before they went in. "I guess those plans to convince them to get married may have just become superfluous. It's almost a pity, they were some of our best ideas yet."

A look of panic suffused Soun's face, as he remembered that one of those plans was scheduled to take place in about an hour. "Oh no! We've got to get to the phone and stop those people before it's too late! It might ruin everything." The two men dashed inside the house for the telephone.

* * *

After the four travelers had a chance to put their luggage into the rooms they would use, and freshen up, everyone met back in the family room. They looked at one another across the low table.

"I hardly know where to start," Soun Tendo said. "What were you thinking of, doing this to us? Where have you been living? Oh, I suppose that doesn't matter; now that you've accepted the engagement, you'll be coming back home of course. We need to start making plans for the wedding ceremonies."

"Father, we ..." Kasumi started to answer, but she was interrupted before she could finish.

"Have you been keeping up with your martial arts training?" Genma demanded irritably, "Or have you been letting yourself get soft?"

"Is Akane pregnant?" Nodoka Saotome wanted to know, visions of cherubic grandchildren flitted through her mind.

Ranma's face turned scarlet. "Mom! No, Akane is not pregnant." He paused to take a deep breath. "We are planning to get married during the winter break, and we won't be having children until after we graduate from high school, at the very least. Maybe not until after college. Uh, we haven't really discussed children yet." He said the last a little sheepishly, with a glance toward his fiancée, who only looked back fondly.

Akane then turned to their parents in exasperation, adding, "And no, we are not coming back to live here anytime soon."

"Not coming back home?" her father repeated, his eyes welling with tears. "But you have to. We have to prepare for the weddings."

"Akane and I are planning to have a double wedding during the winter break, on New Year's Day," Kasumi said softly.

The parents all beamed at this.

She continued. "We plan to take care of all of the arrangements for the wedding ceremony ourselves. We would appreciate it if you could handle the reception."

The parents' faces fell.

"But Kasumi, we want to give both of you a wonderful wedding!" The Soun Tendo waterworks were starting to flow again.

Kasumi was not impressed. She gazed at him sternly. "Please stop that, daddy. I'm afraid that your track record with weddings is not encouraging. Akane and I will handle the wedding ceremony, as I said, so that we will know that it is done to _our_ preferences."

"Boo hoo! My daughter doesn't trust me!"

Genma leaned over, grabbed his old friend, and put his mouth close to the weeping man's ear. "Pull yourself together, Tendo. They're agreeing to marry, so don't rock the boat. If they want to plan the wedding themselves, then fine!"

Soun nodded his head at the justice of this, and started drying his tears. Akane decided to address her father's original questions, although her gaze flicked between Nabiki and Nodoka, and tended to avoid her father.

"As for your other questions ... We've already explained our reasons for why we did what we did. There's no point in going over it all again, it will just get everyone upset. We are not going to tell you where we are living, we're not prepared yet for people to know that, however we will tell you that the four of us are all sharing an apartment. Ranma knew where to find Doctor Tofu, and before we ever left Nerima we contacted him and had him make arrangements at his end. As I said, we are not coming back yet. Ranma and I plan to finish the school year and graduate from the school we are now attending, and Ono-sensei cannot just up and abandon his practice and his partner."

"But why can't you at least let _us_ know where you're living?" Nodoka wanted to know.

"Because we still don't want people interfering with our lives," Akane said stiffly. Nodoka flinched from her cold gaze.

Kasumi felt that the level of tension was getting just a little too high, and decided to try to calm things a little. "That doesn't mean that we only want to keep the information from you. The problem is, the more people who know something, the harder it is to keep it secret. There are those who would want to interfere, even violently, and who will do so if they can."

Ranma had taken Akane's hand and was looking at her worriedly. She gave him a wan smile and took a deep breath, calming herself down. "It's taken some hard work for Ranma and me to try to get our relationship straightened out, so we don't want to take any risks of getting it screwed up again."

"Finally," Ranma concluded, "we've already told you in our emails that I've been keeping up with my martial arts training, old man, and that I've been training Akane as well. If you want proof, we can spar later, and I'll kick you around the yard until even your hard head is convinced."

Akane smiled tolerantly at the familiar image this conjured. "Just so long as you don't forget to leave time for our training, baka," she added in a sweet voice, smiling tenderly at the young man beside her. "Remember? We didn't have time to go by the dojo this morning."

"I ain't forgotten, tomboy. We'll have plenty of time." He smiled just as tenderly back at his fiancée, and it was clear to everyone that the word 'tomboy' had become a pet name, instead of the insult that it once was. At the same time, they realized that her use of the word 'baka' had sounded similar to his use of 'tomboy.'

Ranma chuckled mentally as he thought about the surprise the fathers were in for later, when they would watch him working out with Akane. He was pretty sure they weren't expecting just how much better she had become. Her purely physical martial arts skills had reached the point where he would now put even odds on her in a fight with Shampoo, and he was starting to teach her chi attacks.

Akane's gaze passed over her father and moved away rapidly again, and Nabiki decided that she had had enough. "Okay sis," Nabiki asked in a no-nonsense tone, "how about you tell us now why you're upset with daddy?" Soun, Genma and Nodoka looked startled at the question, while Ranma looked apprehensive.

Akane stuttered, not looking at either Nabiki or her father. "I ... I'm not. I don't know where you got that idea."

"Don't hand me that," Nabiki responded forcefully. "You've been avoiding looking at him since you got here. When you do, you look either angry, or hurt, or lost. Now, what's up?"

"Yes," Kasumi added her voice to this. "I've noticed as well, little sister. You were very cold out in the yard when father greeted us."

Akane chewed on her lower lip. Soun asked tentatively, "Daughter ...?" Everyone saw her flinch at the sound of his voice being directed at her.

"Akane," Ranma whispered from beside her, "I think you're going to have to tell them something. You can't just leave it like this."

She gave him a hard to interpret look, then grabbed his hand like an anchor. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face her father, who gave a small jerk backwards when he saw the fire burning in her eyes. She spoke in a voice which was under such tight control that it came out in a cold monotone. "Very well. I assume by now that you are all aware of what Hibiki did to me?" Everyone nodded, but she saw her father, and Genma Saotome as well, looking nervous. "Ranma had an excuse for not telling me the truth about that ... that _pig_, even if it was a poor excuse, and with the exception of not telling me he did try his best to stop that pervert from taking advantage of me." Her eyes blazed even hotter and Soun involuntarily drew back even further from the fire within her. "However, our dear father also knew the truth. Our _father_, who is supposed to look after our best interests, and who so far as I can tell did nothing to protect me."

Kasumi put her hand to her mouth, gasping, and looked at her father in horror. The Ice Queen's emotionless facade cracked, as she glared at their sire with loathing. Even Nodoka was looking at him coldly, fingering her katana, as if calculating where best to carve. Soun attempted a desperate defense, which would probably have been best left unsaid. "But ... but ... it made Ranma so jealous, which was all to the good ..." His voice trailed off as the chilled silence became even deeper.

Akane turned away in pain, once again preferring not to look at him. Kasumi was the one who spoke, in tones near absolute zero. "Father, if you had not said that, I would have found it difficult to credit such an accusation. I can scarce believe it now. Do not imagine that you can possibly talk your way out of this; such behavior was inexcusable. I think you should leave this room immediately, or we shall. I know that I, for one, do not wish to see you at the moment. I suggest that you go ... somewhere, and reflect on the magnitude of your error. If you wish to speak to us again, you had better first understand why what you did was so wrong, and be prepared to acknowledge it."

Soun looked in shock at his oldest daughter, then saw that Nabiki and Nodoka were looking at him with similar expressions. He decided to beat a retreat, already sobbing over the fact that all of his daughters were upset with him. Genma decided that it was wiser not to remain himself, and disappeared from the room as well.

Kasumi turned to her youngest sister with a sigh. "You should have told me about this before, Akane. Why didn't you?"

Akane didn't look her in the eye. "It hurt too much, I guess. Besides, I was hoping that you wouldn't have to find out about it. Can we ... drop it for now? I really don't want to discuss it any further."

Kasumi heard the pain in her sister's voice and nodded. At the urging of Nodoka and Nabiki, the conversation then turned to details of how Tofu and Ranma had proposed to the girls.

Much later, while Akane and Ranma took his father out to kick him around the yard as promised, Nabiki went up to her room and pulled out her books. She started running her finger down the bets on whether Ranma would ever propose to Akane, the circumstances, the date, and so forth, marking who needed to be paid off and how much. The big winner to her surprise was Gosunkugi, who had managed to pick the exact date. She could even remember the day he had placed the bet, and that he seemed to have been crying at the time.

* * *

That night, as she lay in bed trying to get to sleep, Akane was reflecting on how people acclimate to things. She had become rather accustomed to Kasumi's breathing in the other futon, and was finding it very difficult to sleep without the sound. However, she and Kasumi were alone in their old bedrooms, with Ranma and Tofu sharing the guest room, and the Saotome parents having returned to their house for the night. At least, Akane assumed that Kasumi was alone in her room. There had been some unspoken communication between her older sister and Dr. Tofu that made Akane wonder if perhaps Kasumi wasn't quite missing her presence as much as she was missing Kasumi's. She blushed in the darkness as she tried to avoid considering this speculation. 


	12. Discovery

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 12. Discovery**

The morning after their arrival in Nerima found Akane hugging Ranma just inside the front door of her old home, as he prepared to go out. They had discussed this at length, but she could tell that he was very worried, not at all looking forward to what was coming. Truth to tell, part of her still didn't want him to do this alone, despite their mutual decision that it was for the best. He seemed to sense her reluctance within her hug, although he misinterpreted it as a wish for him to stay.

"I've got to do this, Akane," he told her soberly. "It wouldn't be right not to."

"I know," she whispered in his ear. "Just be careful, please? She's probably going to be pretty upset with you, and I'd prefer that you not get injured. Also, I know you'll avoid being seen on the way there, but try to remember to do the same on the way back, no matter what happens. It would be nice to get back out of Nerima without anyone else the wiser."

Ranma gave her a weak smile. "Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll be careful, I promise."

"Okay, then. Good-bye." She leaned up and kissed him, then watched with worried eyes as he walked out the door, and seemed to vanish as he passed through the gate.

Ranma made his way carefully down the streets, keeping all of his senses on maximum alert. With his luck, especially in Nerima, it seemed impossible to hope that he could make it to his destination and back undetected. Eventually he found himself at a locked restaurant door, where he paused before knocking. He had last seen Ukyo on the final day of the previous school year, when he had reassured her that Kasumi was coming on the training trip with Akane and himself, so there was no chance that anything 'improper' was going to happen. His thoughts drifted further back a couple of weeks before that date, to the disaster of a wedding, which Ukyo had bombed in an attempt to stop the proceedings, endangering Akane and several others. Perhaps he and his father, most especially his father, did owe her something for messing up her life and stealing her dowry when she was six. Perhaps she had every right to be upset with the both of them. But putting others in danger hadn't been at all right and he couldn't overlook that. On the other hand, he could remember a time when they had been playmates and he had thought of her as a friend. He wished he could think of her that way again.

Ranma shook himself, realizing these thoughts weren't getting him anywhere. He raised his fist to knock, but then drew it back as a horrible thought hit him. What if, instead of attacking him, she were to cry? He wouldn't be able to stand it if she cried. He almost turned around then and there, but then stopped. In a severe whisper he berated himself, "If she cries, she cries. Deal with it!" Before he could think up any more objections, he raised his fist and finally knocked on the door, watching through the glass as this attracted the attention of Ukyo's femininely dressed waitress, Konatsu. The latter stared bug-eyed for a moment as he recognized who was knocking, then hurried over and opened the door.

"Ranma?" The genius kunoichi was obviously still having trouble believing his eyes.

"Hey Konatsu, and yeah, it's really me," Ranma answered the unspoken question with half a smile. "Is Ukyo in?"

Konatsu got hold of himself, recovering his poise, and replied more firmly, not to mention dubiously, "Yes, she is, although I am unsure of the wisdom of your coming here."

Ranma gave the other boy a crooked grin of rueful agreement. "Yeah, you and me both. She still upstairs this morning?"

"Yes."

"Okay, wish me luck." Konatsu nodded and Ranma went through the back, then up the stairs to the apartment above the restaurant, where he knocked on the door. When the door opened, the face which peered out was barely recognizable. The chef looked as if she had recently suffered a long illness.

"R-Ranchan? Is it really you?"

"Yeah, Ukyo, it's me. We're visiting home for a couple of days, then heading back. We're trying to keep it pretty quiet that we're here, though. We don't want ... well, you know. Are you okay?"

"What are you doing coming by to see me, then?" With a show of spirit, she continued angrily. "And what makes you think that I want to see you?"

Ranma sighed. "Can I come in, Ukyo? I don't expect this will take long."

She reluctantly opened the door wider, then stood aside to let him enter. They sat down facing each other. For several minutes, neither spoke, the tension growing between them. Finally, Ukyo broke the silence.

"So," she spat out, "what makes you think you can just waltz back in here after what you did to me?"

Ranma looked bitter. "What about what you did to me?" He stopped himself, shaking his head, and when he began again his voice was quieter, calmer. "But I'm not here to get into a pointless argument. We were friends once. I don't want you to be hurt any more than you have to be. I came today because I wanted to tell you something before you hear about it from anyone else."

Ukyo sighed, closing her eyes in pain. "You're marrying Akane, then."

Ranma nodded once. "Yeah. I proposed a couple of weeks ago and she accepted. We're planning to get married during winter break."

Ukyo found that she was having trouble breathing. She had been having nightmares about this moment for months, so it didn't seem fair that it could hurt as much as it did. She felt a tear sliding down her cheek, then another, and that didn't seem fair either. Surely she had cried herself out about this shortly after he disappeared?

When she made no response, Ranma continued. "Actually, it's going to be a double wedding. Kasumi and Doctor Tofu Ono are going to get married at the same time as us. Um, if you want a wedding invitation, we'll be glad to give you one, as long as you promise to leave the weapons at home. Of course," he hesitated, wishing once more for the friend he had lost, "we also understand if you don't want to come."

Ukyo held herself in rigid stillness, arms clasped tightly around her body. ‹I won't cry. I will not cry.›

Ranma was growing worried. He had expected to be attacked, or at the very least yelled at. Less likely, though a possibility, would be dealing with her if she broke down and cried. He hadn't planned on what to do if she just sat there, silently, as if changed to stone.

"Ukyo ...?"

Her voice came out like grinding gravel. "Please leave, Saotome. You're not welcome here."

"Ukyo, can I ..."

"Get out! Just get the fuck out! You don't have the right. You don't have any right to see me cry!" There was a sob in her voice at the end.

Ranma jumped out of his chair. "I'm sorry you feel that way, Ukyo. I'm sorry that our lives got so tangled up in this screwed up way, and I'm sorry that you had to end up getting hurt. I never wanted to hurt you, I just wasn't given any real choice about it. Good-bye."

He walked out the door and closed it behind him, hearing the sobs start to break out just as it closed. Konatsu met him as he was headed back out.

"Is Mistress Ukyo all right?" the young ninja asked worriedly.

Ranma looked dejected, and spoke in a voice of considerable weariness. "No, Konatsu, she's not all right. I had to tell her something she didn't want to hear, and it hurt her, badly. I didn't want to hurt her, but she had to know."

"You will not marry her, then?"

"No, I won't. That's why I came by, to tell her that Akane and I are getting married."

Konatsu's face lightened marginally and he gave Ranma a deep bow. "Ah. My congratulations to you, then. I believe that I will go upstairs and see if I may comfort her."

Ranma paused at the door, wondering if anyone could help his one-time friend recover from the heartache he had caused her. A little hopelessly, he responded, "Yeah, you do that Konatsu."

Ranma left the restaurant, almost forgetting the need for stealth, but he remembered at the last moment as Akane's words came back to him. He headed back through the streets, keeping a watchful eye out. At last, he slipped inside the gate at the Tendo home, breathing a little more easily; it did not appear as if anyone had spotted him.

Akane met him just before he entered the house, casting a critical eye up and down his body. "You don't appear to be cut or limping anywhere. Wouldn't she see you?"

Ranma grimaced. "No. It wasn't like that, we didn't fight. I wish we had, it would have been a lot less painful."

"Oh. Like that, then." Akane let him see the sympathy in her eyes, and gave him a quick hug for comfort. "I'm sorry, Ranma, I know how much you hate to hurt people. Why don't you go take a bath and soak in the furo for a while?"

"Yeah, I guess I will. That does sound like a good idea. What do you say I change into a girl afterward, and we polish off a tub of ice cream together?"

"I'd say it sounds like a plan. Go on inside, now."

* * *

The atmosphere inside the Tendo home remained strained that weekend. In order to repair relations with his daughters, Soun Tendo spent long hours meditating before his wife's shrine. He finally made a halting and tear-filled, but reasonably sincere, apology to Akane while Kasumi and Nabiki listened in the background. Akane did not immediately express forgiveness, but realized afterward that it no longer felt as if there was an abyss separating her from her father. Other than that, everyone mostly got along, aside from some inconsequential arguments arising from the continued desire to maintain secrecy, and one bitter argument between Ranma and his mother which no one else witnessed. With each such argument, people were able to apologize shortly afterward and peace was restored.

On Sunday the two engaged couples carried their luggage back out to the car and prepared to leave. Just as the last suitcase was placed in the trunk and the hood closed, the two fathers gave Nodoka a meaningful look. She sighed and placed her hand on Ranma's shoulder, causing him to turn and look at her.

"Ranma, my son," she began, entreatingly, "I am your mother. Do I not have a right to know the whereabouts of my son? I was so worried during those months when I did not know where you were or under what conditions you were living. Must I continue to live under such a cloud?"

The young man looked downcast, hating the idea of worrying his mother or having her upset with him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Akane looking at him sympathetically, her face conveying the message that she would understand if he gave in to this plea. He drew strength from the very fact that she did support him, whatever decision he made. Akane was the woman he loved, the most important person in his life, far more important to him even than his mother's goodwill. His features firmed.

"I'm sorry, mom. I don't want you to worry about me, but we've been over this, and we're not going to tell you where we're living. Maybe after this winter, when we're safely married, but not now. I'm sorry."

His mother nodded, a single tear leaking out, and hugged him. This started a veritable orgy of people hugging one another. At long last, the four climbed into the car, and drove off. Suspecting that lookouts might have been posted along the roads to watch which way they went, they started out driving to the southeast for a good distance before finally turning northward.

That afternoon, Nabiki made an appearance at the Nekohanten. Shampoo gave her a look which was both glowering and hopeful at the same time, and immediately led her into the back, where Cologne was once more stationed over her stove. The old woman gave her a sharp look.

"Greetings, Tendo-san. What may I do for you?"

Nabiki was in her most businesslike mode. "Hello, elder. I have some information about Akane and Ranma, though it's less than you'd like to have, I'm sure. Let's say 5000 yen?"

Cologne wordlessly handed over the money. Shampoo hovered in the room rather than going back out to tend to the customers.

"Ranma, Akane and Kasumi came to visit us this weekend, and left again just a couple of hours ago ..."

Cologne interrupted. "Such information would have been more useful yesterday, or even four hours ago."

Nabiki shrugged. "My duties to my family exceed my desire for profit, hard though that is for some people to believe. As I was about to say, Doctor Tofu Ono was with them, it seems that the three of them have been living somewhere with Dr. Ono for the past few months. However, they have still refused to tell us anything about where they are living, and they came and left in Ono-sensei's car. I have information that they left Nerima driving in a southeasterly direction."

Cologne made a dismissive gesture and Nabiki inclined her head marginally and responded as if the old Chinese Amazon had actually spoken. "Of course, no doubt they deliberately set out in the wrong direction and doubled back, as it seems unlikely that they are living in the center of Tokyo. In any event, the news that they brought is that Doctor Tofu has proposed to Kasumi, and Ranma has proposed to Akane, and that they are planning to have a double wedding this coming New Year's Day. They were careful to drop no other clues to help determine where they are living, although Ono-sensei's presence is certainly a significant clue in and of itself."

Cologne's eyes had narrowed thoughtfully at the mention of Tofu Ono's name, and she nodded at this last statement from the Tendo girl.

‹A more significant clue than you realize,› the old woman thought to herself. ‹Tofu himself probably doesn't realize that our mutual friend at the hospital here in Nerima told me a long time ago where he settled down when he left. It's a pity the idea of their linking up with Tofu never occurred to me before, and it should have, since it would have been a considerable incentive for Kasumi to have gone with them. Now the question is, how much do I reveal to Xian Pu?›

"Thank you for your information child," she said noncommittally. "Shampoo, please get back out front now and see to the customers."

Nabiki left the restaurant, and walked over to the Kuno estate, where she asked to speak with Tatewaki. Not unexpectedly, his sister Kodachi also joined them.

"What do you wish here, Nabiki Tendo," Kodachi hissed. "Have you come to gloat that your sister is still in hiding somewhere with my Ranma darling?"

"Temper, temper, Kodachi, at least if you want the information that I have to sell. 15000 yen please."

It had been her intention to charge 10000, but she had upped the amount after the gymnast's outburst. Tatewaki shot his sister a quelling look, and handed over the money. Nabiki then repeated the same information which she had already sold to Cologne. Kodachi howled upon learning that Ranma had actually been in town, and she had missed him.

"Thank you for this information, Nabiki Tendo," the boy stated. "Although I share my sister's sentiments. I would have paid a great deal more to have had this information earlier."

"Sorry, Kuno-baby. My sisters didn't want you to know until after they left, and I didn't want to betray their wishes."

Tatewaki Kuno merely stared down his nose at her, and Nabiki turned and left. After the door closed behind her, he sighed and turned to their servant. "Sasuke, it is clear that we have delayed too long while waiting for you to track down my loves and that foul sorcerer. Please contact a competent private investigator, and have him call on me here for instructions."

"You should have taken such a step long ago, brother."

"I do not recall you suggesting it either, dear sister. Hopefully it will be possible to find them through the doctor who is now their companion."

He returned to his private gymnasium to practice with his swords, while dreaming of going to the rescue of the women he loved.

* * *

The next morning, Cologne called Shampoo and Mousse to her. "I'm going to leave the two of you in charge of the restaurant today. The news we received yesterday has given me an idea, one that I wish to follow where it may lead, but it means I will be gone all day."

Shampoo was immediately interested, her beautiful eyes widening with hope. "You know where airen is?" she asked, barely breathing the words. "Shampoo will come with you!"

"No!" The single word came out like the crack of a whip. "I do not know what will come of this. You will stay here. Mousse will need you to help him." Shampoo gave her hapless swain a dismissive glance and sighed, sadly nodding obedience of the old Amazon's express order.

"Yes, great-grandmother. Shampoo hope it works, and you find them."

"I'll certainly let you know child. I need to go now, I have a train to catch."

That evening in Sendai, when the four roommates walked into the garage after work to head home, they found the withered old woman sitting on the roof of Tofu's car, staff in hand. "Hello, children," she declared brightly. "Fancy meeting you here."

Ranma groaned. "So it looks like we were right about the risk of letting people know we were living with Doc Tofu."

"That's right, sonny." She cackled nastily. "I already knew where he was; it just never occurred to me that you might be with him."

"I ain't never gonna marry Shampoo or go back to your village with you. I'm marrying Akane, and nothing you say or do is going to change that!"

Cologne sighed, her cheerfulness disappearing. "Can we go somewhere and talk? This garage does not really seem to be an appropriate setting."

The four exchanged looks with one another, then Tofu addressed the other three. "I really do not want to freely hand over the location of our apartment. Why don't we walk over to one of the nearby restaurants for an early dinner?"

Akane and Ranma shrugged agreement, Kasumi and Cologne nodded, and all five walked out of the garage. In short order they were seated at a table looking over menus. The dinner rush had not really started yet, and nobody was sitting very close to them. Nonetheless, conversation was postponed until after they had placed their orders, received their drinks, and the waiter had left for the kitchen.

"So, old ghoul, say your piece." Ranma was practically snarling.

"Manners, sonny," she snapped back, then immediately sighed. "The truth is, _Ranma_, that I am no longer certain of the wisdom of bringing you home to my village."

This statement left Kasumi and Tofu with wide eyes and hanging jaws, while Akane and Ranma both nodded with satisfaction. Cologne had just confirmed something which they had already considered, and discussed in private.

"The Kiss of Marriage is not a thing to be easily set aside. By our traditions, it is a solemn vow of union, and as an elder of my people I am expected to uphold our traditions. At the same time, I have the responsibility to consider what is best for my people in the long run. Ranma's presence may in the end do more harm than good, aside from the damage he might inflict in the attempt to get him there against his will in the first place. Or, for that matter, to keep him there. I am not, after all, unmindful of what happened at Jusendo."

Ranma winced, closing his eyes. "I don't ever wanna be put in the position of having to do something like that again." His eyes reopened. "On the other hand, I'll do anything to protect Akane."

For once, Akane kept her mouth shut in the face of Ranma's declarations that he was responsible for her safety.

Cologne continued speaking in a serious tone. "It would be very difficult for me to revoke the Kiss of Marriage against Shampoo's will, and she will not easily be turned aside from the course which she has set herself. Further, my vengeance would be terrible if she were to be killed or suffer permanent injury."

Ranma and Cologne were staring into one another's eyes, as if they were exchanging thoughts. The others felt like spectators at some sort of sparring match.

"Won't she be in trouble with your people if she doesn't fulfill that Kiss of Marriage thing?" Ranma asked thoughtfully.

"That is so, but I can soften it considerably. The other elders have also been growing concerned about the prospect of your living among us."

"I won't have our home or jobs disturbed. School starts in a few weeks; you can tell her that you have learned we are attending Masamune High School here in Sendai. I don't want her endangering any of the other students either. If she does ..."

He left the threat unfinished. Cologne held up one hand, indicating agreement. Satisfied, Ranma nodded and continued. "If there were to be a confrontation before or after school, then the school grounds are large enough that we should be able to avoid any risk to other people." He paused contemplatively, a finger tapping his chin. "You'll need to find a way to keep Mousse occupied; his presence might complicate matters."

"I've been thinking of sending him to China with some messages, and to pick up some things for me. The start of the school term might be a good time for that."

The two of them bowed slightly toward one another, as if some sort of agreement had been reached. The food arrived shortly thereafter, and the remaining dinner conversation was purposefully kept away from the relationship between Shampoo and Ranma, focusing instead on minor events in Nerima and the life the four had been living in Sendai. After the meal they drove Cologne to the train station, before going home.

During the drive to the apartment, Ranma spoke thoughtfully. "Akane, we're going to drastically increase your training, effective immediately. Shampoo might find you before she finds me, and I want to make sure that you're more than a match for her, if she does."

* * *

Of course, Shampoo wasn't the only adversary they had to worry about. Trouble showed up a couple of weeks later, just as Akane was on her way out of the hospital after work. Stepping out of the elevator with her was a young intern on his way home who, to his misfortune, tied his black hair back in a pigtail, and had chosen to wear a red shirt and black slacks that day. He did not really resemble Akane's fiancé very much, but there was a superficial resemblance at a brief glance, particularly for someone who had not laid eyes on Ranma in several months.

As the pair exited the elevator there was a sudden stir in the lobby, as a young man strode in carrying a sheathed katana. His eyes blazed as he spotted the figure in front of him and, dropping the sheath from his blade, he ran forward.

"Foul sorcerer! At long last I shall free my fierce tigress from your spell!"

Akane wasted valuable seconds looking behind her, where she assumed Ranma must be standing, then turned back and watched in horror as the blade stabbed forward. At the last second she reached out and grabbed the young man beside her, who seemed to be frozen in shock, and yanked him to the side.

Too late, as the blade bit deep into his left shoulder, but also just in time, as it did not pierce the heart toward which it had been aimed. Blood sprayed forth, and several voices around the lobby erupted in screams.

"No, Kuno, wait! He's not Ranma!" Akane shouted desperately, hoping to break through to whatever core of sanity Kuno might possess.

The would-be samurai halted in shock, as he realized that his sword had pierced a stranger, a stranger whose life's blood was pouring down his left side. Two security personnel ran up, drawing their sidearms, and pointing them at the fool with the sword. Akane had leaped to the intern's wounded side, and clamped a strong hand over the bleeding wound, and a couple of other people were running up from behind her to help.

"Drop the sword, mister! Drop it now!"

Tatewaki Kuno gave the men a bewildered look. Why were these peasants shouting at him? "Do not fear, I will not harm him further. You see, it is not the sorcerer."

"Either you drop that blade now, and kiss the floor, or I start shooting!"

It is hard to say what young Tatewaki thought he was doing. He turned to face toward the security personnel, pointing his sword at the man who had spoken as he prepared to address him. A bullet crashed into Kuno's upper arm, causing him to drop the katana and fall back into some chairs that were behind him.

He managed to whisper, "That hurt, you know," before he passed out from shock.

The police arrived a few minutes later, to find both the victim and his assailant in surgery. They took statements from everyone present, shaking their heads over someone talking about sorcerers and stabbing a person with a katana.

Akane gave them the longest statement, including some of the history that she and Ranma had with the Kuno's. She was not remiss to point out the possibility that Tatewaki's equally deranged sister might be around somewhere, since if one had found them, the other likely knew where they were as well. More police were sent to check the area around the hospital and medical center, furnished with a description of Kodachi Kuno. They also contacted the police in Nerima in order to try to confirm whether she might still be at her home there. Akane finally got a chance to call Tofu's clinic to ask him to find Ranma and warn him.

The police quickly confirmed that Kodachi was in fact somewhere in the area, since they found the Kuno's limousine parked out in front of the hospital, and the chauffeur saw no reason not to provide them with this information. Akane became worried when it was reported that nobody was able to locate Ranma, and she was sitting in Tofu's clinic nervously waiting for information, with Kasumi's arm around her.

The search finally found both Kodachi and Ranma together, in a supply closet in the medical center, both of them unmoving and apparently under the influence of some drug. They were quickly taken down the street to the hospital, where Tofu followed them, identified the use of Kodachi's paralysis powder, and suggested treatment. An hour later Ranma was finally able to talk again, and addressed himself to his fiancée, Doctor Tofu, Kasumi, and a police officer.

"That psycho bitch cornered me in a supply closet just before I got off of work. She was raving on, calling me 'Ranma darling' and how she was going to save me from Akane and carry me to her limousine which would whisk us back to Nerima. She just laughed at me and pulled out these flowers. Well, I've seen the effects of her flowers more than once, so I tried to block her and knock them away before she could stick 'em in my face, but I only succeeded in getting us both sprayed with the crap. I was sitting there praying that I'd be the one to come out of it first and not her, 'cause she would have tried to carry me off otherwise, and I was worried that she might have at least a partial immunity to the stuff."

With more than a touch of exasperation, Akane told him, "Ranma, I wish you would make an exception about hitting girls in some circumstances."

"Sorry, 'kane, but she hadn't even attacked me yet. I was hoping I could talk her into just leaving."

"Well, thank you for your statement, Saotome-san," the police officer said. "She and her brother are facing quite a list of charges, and the word I've been hearing from higher up is that they'll probably also be forced to have psychiatric evaluations."

As their cases wound through the courts, the Kuno siblings discovered that while their wealth did indeed command a certain degree of respect, they had nowhere near as much influence in Sendai as they had back in Nerima. In fact, the Kuno clan found that it was unable to secure their release, and was reduced to making concessions in order to keep the scandal under wraps as much as possible. Brother and sister ended up institutionalized in the interest of public safety, and gradually faded from the memories of the people who had once known them.

* * *

A couple of evenings after the two Kuno's were arrested, Akane and Ranma were sharing a quiet moment in Akane's room. Ranma was female and sitting with his back to Akane, who was pulling a brush through her fiancé's silky red hair in long, slow strokes. The two of them had been making out earlier, but their excitement had reached a level where they had mutually agreed that they should stop for the night. However, they found that Ranma could not retire to his own bedroom because Kasumi and Tofu were still together in there with the door shut. At that point Akane, with a twinkle in her eye, and never suspecting that he would agree, had suggested that they brush each other's hair. Ranma hadn't really been all that enthusiastic for the idea, but changed to his cursed form and went along with the suggestion for lack of anything better to do. He had found to his surprise that he enjoyed the tactile sensation of brushing Akane's hair, and was enjoying even more the feel of having his own hair brushed by the one he loved.

For her part, Akane was discovering that as a tactic for allowing time for her passion to subside, this exercise was not working as well as expected. The heat which Ranma's kisses and touches had roused in her earlier was fading only slowly, and the action of brushing his hair, even in his female form, was proving more erotic than she had foreseen. Even more troublesome was the fact that her imagination kept turning to the other bedroom, and what she believed her sister and Tofu to be up to at that moment. Although she was happy with the current state of her relationship with Ranma, and not yet ready to take it further, she couldn't help wondering what it would be like and feeling a little envious of Kasumi.

As Akane was retying Ranma's pigtail, they heard a door open and close again, and a discreet knock came on their bedroom door. Akane called out, "Come in," and the door opened to admit her sister Kasumi, who greeted them cheerfully. Akane focused on finishing with the pigtail, whereupon she and Ranma left the bedroom in order for him to change back to male and to share a goodnight kiss.

On returning to her bedroom, Akane was a little surprised by the look she saw on Kasumi's face. Her sister was happy, even glowing, as was to be expected. But there was also something about her which was a little sad, or maybe wistful. She wondered if there was something the matter, and whether she ought to try to talk to her about it.

Kasumi had finished changing into her nightgown by the time Akane had made up her mind to broach the subject. Kneeling on her futon, hands resting lightly on her knees, Akane asked, "Is something the matter, oneechan?"

The older girl looked a little startled. "Why, no, Akane, everything is fine. Why do you ask?"

Akane crossed her arms and gave her older sister a stern look. "You can drop the act. You've gotten a little out of the habit of hiding your emotions since we moved here. Now if it's none of my business, just say so, but I'd like to help, or at least listen, if you want to talk about it."

Kasumi sighed deeply as she settled into a sitting position on her own futon, and an array of emotions passed across her face, settling finally on resignation. "It's really nothing that need worry you, Akane. It's just that ... the time I spend with Tofu is so ... so wonderful." Kasumi's cheeks flushed pinker. "It hurts when I must leave him so that Ranma may go to bed." Her eyes turned inward and a small smile appeared on the edges of her lips. "What I really want is to stay there with him afterward, to hold him close through the night. I suppose you must have seen a trace of that in my expression."

Akane understood immediately what Kasumi was saying. Her imagination was easily able to offer a similar image, involving herself and Ranma instead. She also felt sad watching Ranma leave her to retire to his bedroom for the night. "Well, I can understand that. There are times when I wish Ranma didn't have to go to the other room, even if I don't want him sleeping in my bed yet."

They sat there together in silence for several minutes, neither of them moving to go to bed, both contemplating these feelings. Finally Akane, eyes turned down to her knees and speaking very hesitantly, asked, "You'd really be happier if you were sharing Tofu's bedroom, wouldn't you?"

Kasumi drew in a little gasp of a breath. "Please, Akane, don't tease. There are only two bedrooms in this apartment, and you and Ranma are too young to share a bedroom."

Akane looked up, with a small flash of anger in her eyes. "What gives you the right to say what Ranma and I are or aren't ready for? He and I are both eighteen, we're engaged, we're going to be married in a few months, and we are perfectly capable of making our own decisions. We didn't escape from our parents telling us what to do just to ..." She stopped and drew a deep breath, getting herself back under control from her minor outburst, a bit ashamed of having spoken to her well-meaning sister in such a tone. "I'm sorry about that, Kasumi, I guess you touched a nerve."

Kasumi looked contrite. "No, I'm sorry, little sister. You're right. You're grown up now, and you have the right to make your own decisions. Are you serious about switching rooms ...?"

Akane shrugged, her mouth quirking up. "Well, I haven't made that offer yet. I want to think it over more first. For one thing, before suggesting it I want to be sure I'm confident that sharing a bedroom with Ranma wouldn't make me feel pressured to sleep with him as well. And even if I decide that I'm okay with the idea, we would still have to see what the guys have to say about it. Ranma can be awfully shy sometimes, and he might feel that _he_ isn't ready for such a step." She slid under her sheets. "I do plan to give serious thought to it. I really do think that Ranma and I are at a point where we could handle such a change, or at least nearly so. Or at least I hope we are. After all, as I already pointed out, it's only a few months before we're going to be married."

"As long as you don't feel pressured into doing it just for my sake," Kasumi responded, with concern, uncertainty and hope warring in her voice.

"I promise," Akane answered sleepily.

The next morning at practice, Akane noticed that Ranma wasn't being as loquacious as usual. She decided that he must have picked up on her mood, that there was something she was thinking hard about, and was leaving her to it. Over the course of the day, as she contemplated the idea of sharing a bedroom with Ranma, she slowly came to the realization that she was not only willing but that she wanted this. While there would be some difficulties, especially some initial awkwardness, she found that she liked the idea of having this young man she had come to love sleeping close enough for a quiet word to reach. She resolved to speak with him about it at their evening workout.

By the time Ranma called a halt to their practice in the dojo that night, Akane was ready to drop from exhaustion. That had been the case almost every night since Cologne had found them. He wasn't quite as rigorous in the morning exercises since she had to get through the rest of the day, but the only nights he let up even a little were those on which they were going out afterward on a date. She had quickly come to realize just how serious he was about making sure that she was ready to handle Shampoo if it should prove necessary. Before he headed off to shower, she reached out and grabbed his sleeve, wearily motioning for him to sit on the floor beside her.

"What is it, 'kane?" he asked, curious.

"I assume you've noticed how close Kasumi and Tofu have become?" she asked him rhetorically. Not that that stopped him from answering, with a broad grin spreading across his face.

"Kind of hard not to notice. When she leaves Doc Tofu and passes me in the hallway, I have to look twice before I believe that her feet really are touching the ground at all. And the Doc has this really goofy smile permanently plastered on his face."

Akane wanted to smile at his sally, but found that she was too nervous. All day, she'd been trying to figure out the words to explain what she wanted, without much luck. Now that she was down to the wire, she decided to try being blunt. "Well, it's just that I think that maybe Kasumi and Tofu would both be happier if they could share the same bedroom. And I was thinking that I really wouldn't mind sharing a bedroom with you as long as we stick to separate futons."

Ranma fell over soundlessly, and lay on the floor staring up into space. Okay, maybe the blunt approach hadn't been the best choice after all. After a few minutes contemplation of the ceiling, he began speaking in a quiet, hesitant voice, without looking at her. "You mean you, and me, sleeping in the same bedroom? Just a meter or two apart? Sharing the same room, the room where we get dressed in the morning and undressed at night?"

"Yes, that's what I mean," she answered shyly. "I admit that changing clothes in the same room will be awkward, and probably pretty embarrassing, at least at first, but, I don't know, maybe we could put up a screen or something to change behind. Besides, we are planning to get married, you know, so it's something we're going to need to get used to eventually."

Ranma gave a weak grin, and finally turned his head to look at her. "Well, yeah, but that's a few months off. While you're talking about doing this ... well, sometime soon, it sounds like. I've gotta admit that you've thrown me a bit. I don't think the idea would have occurred to me, and if it had, I don't think I'd have dared suggest it to you."

"So does that mean you don't want to?" Akane asked, trying to figure out his reaction and whether she should feel insulted or relieved. Or both.

Ranma waved his hands in the air a little helplessly. "I didn't say that. Give me a chance to adjust to the concept that you've even suggested this." He paused, and seemed to lose himself in thought for a while, apparently thinking over the whole idea. At one point he sat up very suddenly, and Akane looked away, having glimpsed the physical reaction he was trying to hide. She realized that if they did go through with this, then embarrassing incidents of this sort were likely to be a lot more frequent.

After some more time passed, Ranma released a large breath, and then spoke in a way that sounded as if he couldn't believe he was saying what he was saying. "I guess ... I'm willing to try if you are. It would be a nice thing to do for the other two, and I'm pretty sure I'll manage to live through the embarrassing moments. Heck, once I'm used to it, I assume I'll appreciate it - if I didn't, then I would have made a mistake asking you to marry me, and I know that wasn't a mistake. The biggest problem I see is that it's going to really increase the temptations we're dealing with. Resisting those while you're so close at night could get ... painful."

Akane had turned her eyes down to her lap as he spoke, her cheeks becoming rosy, but as soon as he was done, she looked up at him and said frankly, "I know what you mean. I feel those temptations too, you know. But I trust you, Ranma." She swallowed hard, and once again looked down, her voice dropping as she admitted, "I trust you more than I do myself, and I know that you're worthy of that trust."

The boy groaned. "Ohhhh ... That is pretty ... ruthless, appealing to my sense of honor like that. You know that I'm going to have to do my best to live up to that now."

"I know," she replied apologetically. "The way your honor doesn't break no matter how heavy the load is one of the things that I love about you."

Ranma sighed dramatically. "So when do we do this, anyway?"

Akane looked thoughtful. "Well, I'll need to tell Kasumi. She and I talked about this a little last night. Then she'll need to discuss the idea with Tofu, which is likely to leave him catatonic for a while. After that, he'll probably want to talk to us to reassure himself that we really are willing, and he may want a chance to think it over. But I don't expect it will take long."

* * *

A couple of nights later, as Ranma lay down on his futon, he said in a voice pitched to carry only a short distance, "Good night, tomboy."

"Good night, baka."


	13. Second Term

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 13. Second Term**

The second term of school started, and Akane and Ranma were both nervously on continuous alert, wondering when a certain purple-haired Amazon might make an appearance. At the same time, they were also putting up with a certain amount of good-natured ribbing about the engagement, as Akane's ring had been instantly spotted on the first day of classes.

Despite their caution, Ranma suspected nothing when, on the third day of the term right at the end of the school day, a teacher stopped him in the hallway. He had been on his way to the front of the school to meet Akane, but the teacher informed him that there was a telephone call for him in the school office. Ranma shrugged and headed there, figuring that he'd meet up with Akane a few minutes later than expected. However, he became suspicious when he reached the office and discovered that the caller had hung up shortly after the teacher had gone in search of him.

Meanwhile outside, in front of the school, totally oblivious to the guys gazing appreciatively at her, Shampoo stood intently watching the front doors, for all the world like a cat watching a particularly interesting mousehole. Although she was, as usual, scantily and provocatively clad, none of the drooling youths approached the beautiful Chinese girl. Either the two large maces which she was carrying, or the cold, murderous look in her eyes, persuaded them to do their ogling from a safe distance.

‹Great-grandmother, why did you make me wait so long before coming here? As soon as you discovered what school they were attending, I could have come to this city and found them. Why wait for them to come back to school? Your excuse about needing me at the restaurant makes no sense to me. My only reason for being in Japan is to bring my airen back to our village, not to turn a profit from our café.›

‹And why did you refuse to come with me? Yes, I must do this on my own, but why should I have no support from you whatsoever? It feels like you have given up, that you are allowing me to make one last grand gesture before we surrender. But I will not surrender! Ranma is mine, not the kitchen-destroyer's, and I _will_ have him! I am going to show him how weak the violent-girl is, and then he will choose me.›

Shampoo's eyes narrowed, as the face of her hated rival emerged from the school's doors. The girl was laughing while walking beside a couple of friends, seemingly without a care in the world, while Shampoo had spent months without so much as a glimpse of her husband and enduring the knowledge that he was living with this girl.

"Akane Tendo! You die now!"

Akane's friends gasped, as did other students nearby, but Akane merely narrowed her own eyes, and handed her schoolbag to one of her friends, and her bento to the other. Empty handed, she stepped forward, leaving them behind and hopefully out of the danger zone.

"Hello Shampoo. You might as well give up this madness and go home. Ranma is going to marry me, and nothing you can do will change that."

"Airen not marry dead girl!" With that defiance, Shampoo charged.

Akane rushed to meet her so that the clash would not take place near anyone else. At the last moment she leapt into the air, and kicked one of the bonborri out of Shampoo's hand, shattering it. The Chinese girl swung back with the other bonborri, but only managed to take some skin off of Akane's thigh.

The two now circled one another warily, with the Japanese girl mostly dodging the occasional strikes made by the other, while watching for an opening. A corner of her brain noted Ranma's emergence from the school, but she ignored that as irrelevant to the task at hand. Ranma halted where he was, realizing that they were committed to the challenge, and that his fiancée would resent any interference in the battle. With fear rising like a fog to choke him, he resolved to stay out of it unless it looked like Akane's life was in danger, and then to hope that he could get there in time to save her.

Without consciously realizing that she had seen it, Akane spotted an opening and leaped in. Faster than Shampoo could believe possible, the other girl was inside her guard and striking outward. Her suddenly numb hand released the other bonborri, which was quickly picked up and thrown a great distance away by the girl who was once more out of her reach.

"Kitchen-destroyer get better, but not good enough to beat Shampoo!"

Akane didn't deign to respond. The match was now entirely hand-to-hand, and they started exchanging blows and blocks, stepping together for brief exchanges before separating again. They were both taking considerable damage now, with numerous bruises and small lacerations. As Shampoo found herself having trouble breathing, she realized that a couple of her ribs were almost certainly cracked.

A worry line creased the warrior's forehead. ‹When did she get so good?›

Shampoo yelled out, "Admit you much better than before, but can you handle this?"

Suddenly a ball of light formed around the Amazon's hands, and shot out toward the other. Akane leaped and twisted in the air, avoiding the strike, and responded with her own chi blast. Shampoo was taken completely by surprise and sent flying backward through the air, tripping over a bench as she landed. She painfully climbed back to her feet, muttering a few Mongolian curse words dealing with animal excrement.

‹Ankle definitely twisted. Little bit dizzy and nauseous, probably a slight concussion. I'd better find a way to end this quickly; no more words. I'm an Amazon warrior! I cannot lose!›

The two came together once more, and even the untrained eyes in the schoolyard could see the increased level of savagery. Ranma started running toward them, hoping he would be in time. Every ear there heard the sickening snap of a breaking bone, followed by another. Suddenly the purple-haired girl was flying through the air to crash into a tree, where she slid down to the ground and lay still. Akane was cradling her left arm in her right, sinking to her knees in the grass.

"Akane! How bad is it?" Ranma cried out as he fell to his knees beside her, not daring to take her into his arms until he knew the extent of her injuries.

The girl looked up at him through tears of pain, her right eye rapidly swelling. "My ... my arm is broken," she managed to gasp out. "I think that's the worst of it," she continued quietly, "at least, I don't feel anything else as serious."

Ranma ran his hands over her quickly, checking her injuries, not caring if it looked hentai to anybody.

"Ranma!" Daiki called out as he ran up. "Kenji is calling for ambulances. They should be here pretty quickly."

"Thanks, man. Okay, Akane, I think you're right and the broken arm is the most serious thing you got. I need to check Shampoo. You gonna be okay?"

She nodded carefully, trying not to move too much. Ranma got up and went over to give Shampoo a quick examination. The Chinese girl was still out cold. After a few minutes he came back.

"Broken leg, cracked ribs, dislocated shoulder, badly twisted ankle swelling up pretty rapidly, at least a mild concussion. Hard to say what else without her awake to tell us where it hurts, although the most likely answer she'd give would be 'everywhere'."

Akane giggled, rather disconcertingly. "I feel the same way, myself."

The ambulances arrived a few minutes later, and the paramedics went to work on Shampoo first. After a while they came over to give Akane a quick examination, put a splint on her arm, and give her a painkiller. The police arrived during this process and started taking statements. Ranma told them in a no-nonsense tone that he would give his statement to the same person who took Akane's, since he would be riding to the hospital with his fiancée.

He and Akane did in fact give their statements at the hospital while Akane's arm was being set and the cast applied. The doctor told them that while she didn't appear to have any serious internal injuries, he wanted to keep her overnight for observation just in case. After getting her settled into her room, Ranma went out to call Tofu and Kasumi, as well as his and Akane's employers, to let them know what had happened. Then he went in search of Shampoo.

He found her room with only a little hunting, and went in to find her awake although looking very banged up. She had a cast on one leg and stitches on the other, an ice pack on her ankle, bindings around her chest, and an IV in one arm. Additionally he could see a split lip, a black eye, and numerous bruises and lacerations covering the exposed parts of her body.

"Shampoo," he said, in a voice that could freeze nitrogen.

Shampoo wouldn't look at him. She looked down, plucking weakly at a fold in the blanket, ashamed that she had lost a fight to Akane Tendo. It was particularly humiliating to have Ranma looking at her right now, knowing that he knew that she had lost to her rival.

In a small, broken voice, very much at odds with her usual manner, she begged, "Ranma. Shampoo love you. Please come back."

"I am sorry that you feel that way, for I do not want your love, now or ever. I've told you before, I do not love you, I cannot love you. I will never be your husband or return to China with you. And if there was ever a time when I could have almost liked you, that time has long since passed."

He walked over to her bedside, then leaned over and kissed her lightly on the cheek. Even then, she hoped. She looked up to see him draw back and look deep into her eyes, with the coldest look she had ever seen. Shampoo felt her soul draw back from what she saw in his eyes.

"That is _my_ Kiss of Death, Shampoo. If you ever try to hurt Akane again, then you have my promise that I will hunt you to the ends of the Earth and kill you. Good-bye."

He turned and walked out of the room. As he strode down the hall, he spoke once more, too quietly for the injured girl to hear, although he did not turn his head to look as he did so.

"Keep her away from us, old ghoul. I meant what I said."

From the shadows, a wizened old head nodded in silent assent.

* * *

With the passage of a few days to dampen the memories, Akane grew much more cheerful, despite the cast (and the itching skin underneath). She had defeated her oldest and most fearsome rival. With Kodachi and Tatewaki Kuno locked up, and Ukyo having apparently accepted matters as they stood, it appeared that there was no longer anyone to stand in the way of her marriage to Ranma. She was also pleased, at least at first, with the way that the other students gushed about her fight with Shampoo. She had been rather accustomed to Ranma being the one to get the spotlight in such matters.

That was the way things stood a few weeks later when Akane's friend Rinko walked up to her desk before class. Akane thought that it would be more of the same and was prepared for it, but Rinko surprised her.

"Hi, Akane, Ranma. I'm planning to have a party at my house Friday night, and I'd like both of you to come. Please say you will?"

Akane thought back to the one time she and Ranma had both tried to attend a party given by one of her friends back at Furinkan. Some guys had brought some sake with them, a lot of people had gotten a bit drunk, some sake had been poured over Ranma's head turning him into a sticky girl smelling of alcohol, Kuno had shown up trying to hug both Akane and Ranma, Ukyo had spent all night trying to drag Ranma back into one of the bedrooms and once Shampoo had crashed the party she had done the same. All told, it had just generally been a miserable night. She had to try to force herself to remember that this was not Furinkan.

She managed a smile, and turned to Ranma. "What do you think?"

Ranma's own thoughts had run in parallel to his fiancée's, and his mind shied from the thought of repeating the experience. On the other hand, he figured that Akane probably would like doing something as normal as going to a party given by a school friend, so finally nodded his head in agreement, although he didn't manage to speak. His head was full of thoughts about sacrificing himself for the woman he loved.

Akane suspected from his expression that Ranma was not too thrilled with the idea of attending this party, but there did not seem to be a way of getting out of it gracefully at this point. She turned to her friend and said, "Okay Rinko, we'd be glad to come."

"Great! It'll be fun, you'll see." She skipped off happily to her own desk.

Akane reached out surreptitiously, and squeezed her fiancé's hand. She whispered, "We'll survive it, Ranma."

"I just hope nobody spills anything on me this time," he whispered back.

The night of the party, Akane and Ranma were walking toward Rinko's house with arms linked. The evening air was cool, and she was wearing a sweater in addition to her shirt and jeans. Ranma had chosen to ignore the temperature rather than cater to it. The girl beside him noticed the tenseness of his muscles, and the way his eyes were darting around as if watching for danger.

"Please try to relax, Ranma. There won't be any other fiancées showing up at the party, this time. Kuno won't be there either."

"Yeah, but that won't necessarily stop people from sneaking in alcohol, or keep people from getting rowdy. It's such an obvious setting for an accident that will get me wet."

Akane grimaced sympathetically. "You know you haven't had too many accidents since you started spending time at home as a girl on purpose," she reminded him.

"Yeah, I know, but I'm still pretty nervous about it."

She squeezed his hand tighter as they turned off of the street and climbed the steps, their hair blowing in a sudden breeze. They could hear music and lots of voices inside as Ranma knocked loudly on the door. A moment later the door was flung open by a beaming Rinko.

"Boy, I'm glad you two could make it! We were so afraid that you'd chicken out and not come!"

"Well, it's not like you really needed us here for the party to be a success," Akane said. "Everyone seems to be having a good time already."

"Sorry, but you're wrong. We definitely needed you two to be here."

She was smiling broadly as she led them into the living room, where they could see a large banner on one wall. It read "Congratulations Akane and Ranma!" The couple stared dumbfounded while everybody cheered their appearance.

"You see, this is actually a party to celebrate your engagement. So it would have been a bit of a letdown if you hadn't shown up."

Hands reached out to grab the frozen pair, and pulled them forward to join the throng.

A little later, Akane and Ranma were slow-dancing as were several other couples around them, enjoying the feeling of holding onto each other, though a little embarrassed to be doing so in front of the people they knew from school. As the music ended they were herded over to sit down on a couch with everybody else gathered around on chairs or on the floor.

"So, why don't you tell us how you two met?" one of their friends asked. "I don't think I've ever heard that story."

The engaged couple turned and looked at each other, both swallowing heavily and trying to communicate with their eyes. They were trying to ask each other an obvious question, "The truth? Or make something up?" Finally, Ranma gave a small, almost invisible, nod and Akane replied in kind. As they turned back to face the group, everyone could see that they looked rather nervous.

Akane started. "It was well into the first term of my first year in high school. I'd been having some trouble with the boys there, which had left me rather fed up with the male species at the time. Then one Sunday my father called my two sisters and myself together to announce that an old friend of his, Genma Saotome, and his son Ranma were coming to visit."

She took a deep breath.

"He told us that there was an arrangement between the families that this boy Ranma was to marry one of the three of us, to unite the Tendo and Saotome schools of martial arts and to secure the legacy of the Tendo dojo."

There was a universal gasp of shock. "It was an arranged marriage?" Rinko wanted to know. "But I thought he only just proposed to you this summer?"

Akane continued. "Remember, I didn't have much of an opinion of boys at the time. When he arrived, my sisters conspired to see that I got stuck with the engagement, which I really resented. As a result, Ranma and I got off to a _really_ bad start, fighting all of the time, and not accepting the engagement."

Ranma now stepped in. "Just like with Akane, my pop waited until that day to tell me about the arrangement, in fact he told me while we were walking to their home. I started to run the other way, and he actually knocked me out and carried me in over his shoulder."

There were titters from the audience.

"Like Akane, I was pretty upset at suddenly finding myself engaged against my will, and some of the things she said to me didn't help. Of course, I turned around and said some pretty bad things myself. So we spent most of the next two years loudly denying that we were engaged to anyone who would listen. And all that time, we were starting to fall in love, though both of us refused to believe it."

There were romantic sighs from the females in the audience, and eye rolling from the males.

"It didn't help that our fathers tried all sorts of really stupid schemes to get the two of us together, which generally ended up achieving the opposite. Also there were a number of people around who were trying to come between the two of us; a lot of you saw one of them, that girl Shampoo who fought with Akane, she was determined that she was going to marry me instead."

"It also didn't help matters when we sort of got pretty jealous, too," Akane put in. "I would usually blame Ranma whenever Shampoo, or Ukyo, or Kodachi put the moves on him, and take it all out on him. He'd turn into the most incredible jerk whenever he got jealous about Ryoga or Shinnosuke or some other boy following me. Although I don't think he was ever jealous of Tatewaki's proclamations of love for me."

"Nope, your attitude toward him was pretty clear," Ranma said and then grinned, "and I'm glad you didn't get jealous about his proclamations of love for me, either."

The other students stared in shock at this statement, while Akane just pursed her lips and shook her head in a scolding fashion.

"Anyway," Ranma went on, slowly, considering his words carefully, "in the last term of our second year, Akane was kidnapped and taken to China. I eventually was able to rescue her, well, in a sense we rescued each other, though it was a pretty near thing. I came close to being killed, and Akane actually did die for a moment."

Everyone was now staring in wonderment and awe. Rinko whispered, "You died, Akane?"

"Briefly," she confirmed, "and then I heard Ranma telling me that he loved me, and I opened my eyes to find myself in his arms."

"Um, yeah," Ranma moved on. "So we were sort of able to start admitting our feelings, at least to ourselves, though bad habits reared their head again pretty quickly. Then to completely screw things up, our fathers tried to force us into a wedding ceremony as soon as we got back to Japan. It was, to put it very bluntly, a complete disaster."

"We really don't want to talk about that," Akane said firmly, "it's a very painful memory. Suffice it to say that _we_ weren't too happy about our fathers' high-handed treatment, and the people who had been trying to interfere in our relationship came there to do anything possible to put a stop to the wedding. They succeeded."

"Later that day, Akane and I got to talking, and decided we'd never be able to straighten things out between us so long as we were living there in Nerima with all of the people who were making our life crazy. So we got in touch with an old friend who was living here in Sendai and made arrangements to move here, very carefully not telling any of the nutcases where we were going."

"And, well, you pretty much know the story from there," Akane finished. "With a bit of peace and quiet we were finally able to acknowledge that we really did love one another. The engagement that had been forced on us by our parents never felt real to us since we had fought it for so long, but since Ranma proposed to me we now feel like we're engaged for real."

"Wow, that's like something out of a romance novel," one of the girls proclaimed.

"Are you sure you're not making some of that up?" asked one of the boys.

Ranma snorted. "Actually, we cut out a whole lot of what happened. Trust me, the complete story would have sounded a _whole_ lot more unbelievable."

Rinko hopped up excitedly. "Okay, now that we've had the story, it's time for the gifts!"

The two teens on the couch looked decidedly less than enthusiastic, but resigned. Rinko ran back in with some packages, and handed the first one to Akane. With a little trepidation, she tore the wrapping and pulled out a book. Ranma leaned over and saw that it was titled "Cooking for Two" and let out a groan of horror. His fiancée shot him a quelling look, held it up for everyone to see the title, and then set it aside.

The next box was handed to Ranma, and after removing the wrapping paper he pulled the lid off of the thin cardboard box as Akane watched. Inside was a pair of white boxers covered with red hearts, and the message "Bride's Best Friend" printed across the front. Both teens blushed and Ranma tried to slam the lid back on, but one of the other guys managed to grab it and hold it up for everyone to see. There was much giggling and chuckling while the couple continued to blush.

Another thin package was then handed to Akane, which was light enough to also be clothing. ‹Do I really want to open this?› she thought to herself. Sighing, she did so, but lifted the lid only enough to barely peek inside without giving anyone else a look. As she had suspected, she saw something yellow, and lacy, and very sheer. She tried to push the lid back down without anyone else seeing what was inside, but Rinko grabbed the box and the two of them fought over it. The other girl didn't really stand a chance of getting it away, being nowhere near as strong as Akane and laughing besides, but the box suddenly tore open and spilled the negligee out onto Akane's lap for everyone to see. Ranma quickly grabbed it and stuffed it into the box with his new boxers, while Akane hid her bright red face in her hands.

There was one package left, which was handed to Ranma. He was glad that at least it was too heavy to be clothing, but still ...

"I think that Akane and I will wait until we're home before opening this one."

"Hey, no fair! Come on, Ranma, you can't spoil our fun like that!"

"Yeah, come on! We threw this whole party for you! You can survive a little embarrassment! Or are you too shy? Or maybe just chicken?"

Akane shook her head, knowing that her hope of the gift remaining unopened had just been lost. Ranma tore off the wrapping, but when he started to open the box the weight of the book inside caused it to fall out onto the couch. The cover was face up, showing the title.

"Kama Sutra?" There was a querying note in Ranma's voice. "What's it about?"

"Never mind, Ranma!" Akane hissed, grabbing both the book and the box and hiding it away. "You can look at it and find out later."

Her puzzled fiancé just shrugged his shoulders and nodded. Since that had been the last of the gifts, someone turned the music back on again, and the dancing resumed.

At one point that evening, a rather wet, red-haired girl with a pigtail walked out of the kitchen and down the hall and into the bathroom.

"Hey, Rinko. Who's that girl? I don't recognize her, does she go to our school?"

"Huh, I don't recognize her either. She probably came with one of the boys."

Neither one noticed when Ranma emerged from the bathroom, his hair a bit damp but apparently having been dried somewhat with a towel. He was thinking to himself that he had been lucky that nobody else had been in the kitchen at the moment when he had gone to get some more ice for his drink, and had tripped.

Rinko was a little puzzled after everyone left that she had not had a second glimpse all night of the cute redhead, but shrugged it off.


	14. Deepening Relationships

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

Warning: lime scene below at the beginning of this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 14. Deepening Relationships**

That night after the engagement party, alone in their shared bedroom, the two were getting ready for bed, tired but pleased with the way the evening had gone. Ranma had already stripped down to his boxers and undershirt, while Akane was still changing. She had just finished stripping down to her panties, when she heard him exclaim "Oh my God!" behind her. She spun around, to see that Ranma had a book open on the bed beside him. A book with illustrations. The book, in fact, which they had received at the party earlier that night.

She couldn't help herself. She giggled merrily, causing him to look up to glare at her. Rather, he intended to glare at her, but the sight of her standing there stunned him into silence. Granted, they had been sharing the same bedroom for several weeks now, and this wasn't the first time that he had seen her body since then, but previously it had only been quick glimpses while she changed her clothes, mostly with her back to him. He froze, unable to look away from the sight.

Akane saw the look in his eyes change from surprise to something else, which at first puzzled her, but after a moment she identified it as intense desire, even lust. She only then realized how much of herself she was showing to him, but did not move to cover herself immediately as she became mesmerized in her own turn by his noticeable reaction to her partial nudity, and grew aware of her reaction to his reaction. She sauntered over and sat down beside him, pressing her hip against his, then twisted her torso so she could put her arms around his neck and look into his eyes.

"You like what you see?" she asked throatily.

"Yeah," was the totality of his voiced response. He hesitantly moved a hand up to caress her. This was the first time he had touched her there without her bra being in the way. She moaned and locked her lips onto his, pressing herself more firmly against him. Ranma pulled her over onto his lap, facing him, and they progressed to more intimate caresses, although Akane was hampered somewhat by the cast on her arm.

"Akane?" he whispered, with a slight moan. "I'm not sure that this is such a good idea."

"Shhh," she whispered back. "We won't go any further than this, but right now I need to relieve some tension, and I think that you do too. Oh ... you can touch me there ... a little more firmly. Just pretend that it's your own body when you're a girl."

It was not long before their tensions were indeed relieved, Akane still sitting in Ranma's lap, both still wearing what they had been, waiting for their breathing and thought processes to slowly return to normal. She hugged her fiancé tightly, trying to make sure he was aware that she had no objections to what they had done, now that it was over.

"That was wonderful, Ranma," she sighed contentedly.

"I definitely have to agree with that. ... Um, but we're going to have to be careful doing this in future. It wouldn't have taken much for me to have tried to go a lot further. If you had given me the slightest indication of being willing to do so, I'm not sure if I could have stopped myself."

"I know what you mean. It wouldn't have taken much to push me over the edge, too, and I wasn't really in a mood to listen to logic."

Ranma cleared his throat. Feeling embarrassed, he said, "Well, I think I need to clean up a bit."

"You and me both," she agreed with a small giggle. Getting up, she went over to get some tissues, and then tossed the box to him. Looking over her shoulder at him with a mischievous little grin, she slipped off her panties and tossed them at the laundry hamper. Nude, she walked over to her dresser, where she bent over slightly to fetch a new pair out of the drawer. By the time she had her pajamas on and had turned around, she saw that he hadn't moved at all, even though her back had been to him the entire time. The box of tissues was still sitting, ignored, in the hand with which he had automatically caught it.

"Time to wake up, Ranma."

"Oh, um, yeah."

With a small, smug smile on her face, she sat down on her futon and watched while he stood and stripped off his boxers, Akane very much taking pleasure in both the view and the sight of the normally assured Ranma feeling self-conscious. He was well aware that she was watching him as he cleaned himself off and put on a clean pair of boxers.

"Enjoy the show?" he asked drily when he was decent again.

"Yes, actually." She was grinning broadly.

But her grin slowly faded into a more serious expression. She stood and walked over to her dresser once more. Opening a drawer, she stood in front of it and faced him, her nervousness increasing. Puzzled, he slowly sank down to his futon, sitting on it and watching her closely.

"Um, Ranma, just to be sure that you do know, I'm not ready to go beyond what we did tonight. I didn't even mean to go as far as we did. Not that I regret it in the slightest," she quickly added before he could say anything. "But I think we've both had fair warning of how easily we might forget common sense and do something before we're ready to. If that should happen, then I want you to know about these so that hopefully one of us will remember them in time."

She reached into her underwear drawer, without looking, keeping her eyes on his, and pulled out a box of condoms. She held them out for his inspection.

"Doctor Tofu gave them to me when we rearranged the bedrooms. Just in case." Her cheeks were burning with embarrassment.

Ranma was blushing too. "Oh, I guess ... that's good to know."

"I think maybe I'll call Doctor Shirayuri too, and see about getting a prescription for oral contraceptives. We'd be a lot safer that way if something does happen, and besides, it's only a couple of months before we get married and I'd want to be taking them anyway," she finished up in a rush.

Ranma bobbed his head, uncomfortable with the subject. Akane gave him a small, crooked smile.

"Still my shy little baka, aren't you? Maybe I'd better start looking for ways to cure you of that shyness, before our wedding night," she teased.

"Hey, I ain't all _that_ shy," he replied hotly.

She smiled sweetly down at him, sitting there, then bent over and kissed him on the nose. "Whatever you say. Good-night, and pleasant dreams."

"You too."

They settled under their covers, the light turned off, and slipped into slumbers which were indeed filled with pleasant dreams for the both of them.

* * *

Weeks passed and the temperatures dropped as the year progressed into late autumn, and life continued pretty much as before, except for a proliferation of bridal magazines and the like on every flat surface in the apartment. Ranma and Tofu were seldom asked for their opinions, and had little useful to add when they were. Even though it was hoped that the worst of the suitors/rivals would no longer be a threat, the two couples decided to rent a hall in the neighboring ward of Suginami rather than in Nerima, and to provide transportation for the guests to and from the Tendo home. The actual location where the wedding would take place would be kept secret until everyone arrived. They hoped in this manner to avoid any wedding crashers.

The guest list was slowly fleshed out, striking an uneasy compromise between the wishes of the principals, who wanted to keep it small, and the desires of the parents, who seemed to want everyone in Nerima to be present. The men did find themselves roped into helping with the invitations. Emails flew back and forth steadily to coordinate the plans between the wedding and the reception (which would be held in the Tendo dojo after the wedding party returned to Nerima).

While all of this was going on, the four of them were still working at their jobs, Akane and Ranma were keeping up with schoolwork, Kasumi began taking classes to prepare for entrance exams, time was still being put into martial arts training, and such few random scraps of time remaining here and there were stolen for activities such as sleeping and cuddling.

As the end of term approached, the strain started showing the most for Akane and Tofu. This is not to say that Kasumi and Ranma were not feeling attacks of nerves as well, just that they were not showing them to nearly the same extent. Tofu began to exhibit the intermittent return of the symptoms he used to experience in Kasumi's presence. Akane was having flashbacks to the previous wedding disaster and nightmares about similar events taking place at the upcoming ceremony. Ranma in particular had his hands full trying to keep his fiancée calm enough that her school grades did not suffer.

One welcome development was revealed in an email from Nabiki, relaying information from her contacts in Nerima.

_Wonderful news for Akane and Ranma:_

_I am reliably informed that the Nekohanten has been sold! Apparently, Cologne hauled Shampoo back to China while the girl was still recovering from her injuries, and left Mousse behind to manage the restaurant. He sold it and followed them later._

_I'm also told that Ukyo isn't looking quite as depressed anymore, and that she's even been spotted going out with Konatsu. I guess this means Ranma isn't all that totally irresistible after all._

_Nabiki_

On the strength of this news, wedding invitations were sent to both Ukyo and Konatsu. The latter accepted, but Ukyo politely, firmly, and very formally, said "No, thank you." Unsurprisingly, there was no invitation with Ryoga's name on it.

The thing which unnerved Ranma the most was that Murphy's Law seemed to have been suspended, for a time at least. Wedding gowns and tuxedos were ready on time, floral arrangements were all confirmed for delivery, all of the invited guests sent their RSVP notes (to the Tendo home) answering yes or no. With each passing day he kept expecting _something_ to go wrong, and was starting to get more than a little nervous that it hadn't. He had a superstitious feeling that something had to go wrong at some point, that it was inevitable, and that the longer it was delayed, the worse it would be.

The night before the first of their end-of-term exams was an especially bad one for Akane. She misplaced her English textbook and had to borrow Ranma's, she tore a hole in a favorite dress, and she was ordered out of the kitchen by Kasumi after breaking two dishes while drying them. Then, while in her room working on some notes shortly before bedtime, she broke her pencil no fewer than three times. It was too much. After the third time she began to cry softly.

Ranma closed his own book immediately, and moved over to sit beside her, putting an arm around her and holding her close. "Shh, Akane, calm down. You know that you know this stuff. It's going to be all right tomorrow."

"I know Ranma," she replied quietly through her sniffles. "I'll do fine as long as I don't let my nerves get the better of me during the tests. What I'm really scared about is the wedding ... not that I'm telling you anything you don't already know. I _want_ to be married to you, but lately I've been wishing more and more that we had just eloped."

"Our parents would never forgive us," he smiled, "though sometimes I wish the same thing. Still, the Kuno's and Shampoo won't be able to do anything, and I honestly think Ukyo won't bother us either. That really only leaves Ryoga or the accidental chance of someone like Taro or Happosai. As for them, since the wedding itself won't be anywhere near home, I really don't think we have much to worry about."

"I know all that up here, baka," she said, pointing at her head, "it's down here that I'm having trouble convincing myself." She was now pointing at her heart.

"What, here?" he asked quizzically, as he brought a hand across and groped at her left breast.

She slapped his hand. "Stop that. You know perfectly well what I meant."

Ranma grinned. She was no longer crying, and seemed a bit calmer, which was what he wanted.

"I guess it's time for bed," she now said quietly. "We need a good night's sleep for tomorrow."

Ranma was getting worried as he felt her tensing up under his arm all over again. "Come on 'kane. It's going to be fine; you need to relax."

She sighed, and continued softly. "It's the nightmares. They're coming almost every night now, and each morning I feel like I didn't get any rest during the night. I don't know how to stop them."

Ranma just held her more tightly. After a minute, Akane turned her face up to look at him. She bit her lower lip with her top teeth. "Ranma, would you sleep with me tonight? I mean ... sleep in my bed with me, and hold me, to try to keep the nightmares away?"

Ranma looked startled, then replied, with a slight quaver in his voice. "Um, okay. Would you like me to go change into a girl? So you'll feel like there's a little less chance of something happening that shouldn't?"

Akane smiled at him gently. "No, that's okay, I trust you. Besides, I like it more to be held by this version of you."

"You might trust me; I wish that I were as sure that _I_ trust me. But we'll do it your way."

* * *

The next morning, Akane awoke with a weight across her side and something pressed against her back. As she blinked her eyes, trying to place the unfamiliar sensations, she saw that Ranma's futon was empty and that was sufficient to recall the memory of his lying down beside her last night. A tender smile curved her lips.

‹Mmm, I feel so warm like this,› she thought to herself. ‹I hadn't realized it could feel so good just to wake up to feel him lying beside me. Oh! It worked too! I don't remember any nightmares from last night, and I feel so much better this morning.›

She lay there for about ten more minutes, just enjoying the sensations, until the alarm went off. Sighing with regret at the need to arise, she turned off the alarm and then rolled over to face her fiancé. She had learned some months previously that shaking him or yelling at him were not the most effective ways to awaken him.

She moved forward and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. "Ranma ... time to wake up."

"Hmmmmmm?" He bent toward her and returned the kiss, then sighed. "Okay, I'm awake."

Then his eyes flew upward as he realized she was lying beside him on the bed and their arms were around one another.

"Wh-wh-what? Akane, I'm sorry, I ... I ... wait a minute ... we did this on purpose, didn't we?"

"Mmm-hmmm." Then she giggled softly. "And I want to thank you. It worked, I didn't have any nightmares all night, and I feel better this morning than I have in weeks!"

"Oh, good! Then it's time for us to get over to the dojo for me to beat up on you before breakfast."

"Meanie!" she exclaimed, as she rolled over out of bed, and started to unbutton her pajama top. Just as she pulled it open, his arms came around her and started tickling her stomach.

"Who's a meanie?"

"You are! Ranma, stop!" She was starting to laugh uncontrollably. "We'll wake the others!"

"Ah, all right." He stopped his attack, and patted her bottom as he walked past her to pick up his sweatsuit and gi for the trip to the dojo. "We'll continue later."

As Ranma finished dressing, Akane suddenly realized that she was still standing there in her pajamas, with her top half off. Her mind was still frozen over the pat he had just given her - he had never before treated her body with such casualness. While she resumed removing her pajamas she thought it over and decided that she approved. After all, they were going to be married in less than three weeks, and she wouldn't want him to treat her like she was made of porcelain when the time came. She finally found her voice as he was walking out of the bedroom door.

"You just wait until later, buster! I'm going to get you back for that."

* * *

The experiment had worked so well that Akane asked Ranma to sleep in her bed again that night. In spite of his own doubts as to his self-control, he could see how much better Akane was feeling, so he agreed, and they continued to do so every night thereafter. It did not stop her nightmares completely, but it seemed that whenever one started she would somehow become aware of his protective presence nearby, holding her, and it would fade away to be replaced by a more pleasant dream.

Ranma realized that their new sleep routine might also be helping him with his own nightmares. While he had not been nightmare-plagued like Akane about the upcoming wedding, he did suffer from occasional nightmares about the cat-fist training, falling into the pool at Jusenkyo or, more recently, Akane's death at Jusendo. (He refused to soften this last memory in his mind with the phrase "near-death" instead of "death." That would seem to lessen the miracle that she was alive and with him today.) One night he started to relive her death at Jusendo, but somehow knew that the real Akane was in his arms, in their bed, and the nightmare just faded away, albeit the erotic dream which replaced it bothered him a little. He had awakened toward the end to find that he was pressing himself against Akane in much too intimate a fashion, causing him to worry once more about the extent of his self-control. He decided, however, to keep these concerns to himself.

In any event, Akane was feeling much calmer and more relaxed as she took her tests, and was confident that she had done well on them. Ranma also shared her confidence in his own results; confident not that he had done spectacularly, but that he had achieved his goal of doing better than the previous term.

After school on the last day of the term, Akane went down to the school office to make sure that they were clear on the change in her marital status which would be in effect at the start of the next term. Ranma headed outside to meet their friends, to confirm that there were no last minute questions or confusions about getting down to Nerima for the wedding ceremony. After going over the directions with them one more time, Kenji pointed over his shoulder and spoke.

"Hey Ranma, isn't that the guy you fought with last term?"

Ranma spun around to see Ryoga looking around himself, as if he found the location familiar and was trying to figure out why.

"Oh Jeez. Maybe if he doesn't see me he'll just wander off and get lost again." Saying this he ducked back toward the school doors, but it was an effort made in vain.

"Ranma!" shouted the familiar voice from behind him.

Sighing deeply, Ranma slowly turned back around. In a weary voice, he called out, "What? Shouldn't I prepare to die, this time?"

"I don't care if you're prepared or not. You forced Akane to leave her home to go off somewhere and live with you. You told her about my curse without giving me a chance to explain the truth to her! You've been doing everything that you can to try to make her hate me! This time I really am going to kill you!"

"Whatever you say, Ryoga. Follow me!"

Ranma took off running toward a side of the schoolyard which appeared to be free of fellow students, hoping to lead the apparently inevitable fight away from his friends and other innocent bystanders. The lost boy gave chase, howling with his fury.

"Stand and fight, coward!"

Ranma reached his intended destination, and with stunning suddenness stopped and spun around, launching a kick in the same movement. Ryoga realized too late that he had allowed his emotions to betray him in a fight yet _again_, and stumbled slightly, unable to adjust his footing quickly enough as he tried to get an arm in position to block the kick. Ranma's foot slammed into the other boy's chest like a battering ram, with the cracking sound of a rib breaking, sending him flying through the air for some six meters or so. He was enough of a martial artist to manage to land properly on his feet, however.

Ryoga took up a proper stance this time, fighting his emotions down, and ignoring the pain in his chest. He was determined to beat Ranma into a bloody pulp, then go to find Akane and beg for her forgiveness and to have the chance to explain himself. He was certain that all he need do was to confess his love for her in order to have her understand, and for her to realize how foolish it had been to go anywhere with Ranma.

Ranma was just standing there with his arms crossed. "Ryoga, I suggest you take off before Akane gets out here, she ain't forgiven you yet. Besides, we're getting married in less than two weeks, and I don't intend to take any chances by playing around with you today."

His opponent's eyes widened in shock. "Married? Nooo! I haven't told her that I love her yet! You can't take her away from me, I won't let you!" He charged in again.

Ranma dodged around the other boy's blows, while his own strikes were made with surgical precision. Ryoga felt his left arm going numb from a hit to the shoulder, a blow on his chin rocked his head back, his right thigh screamed in pain as a kick dug deep into the muscle at its back. He felt a sickening realization that Ranma must have been holding back in all of their previous fights, as his own blows were not only failing to connect, but he was only managing to block two out of every three strikes coming at him. A kick to the stomach sent him flying again, and he fell to his knees on landing, dizzy and retching.

"Give it up, Ryoga!"

"Hell no!" The boy staggered to his feet again. He settled into a stance, waiting for Ranma to attack, but the attack did not come. He realized that if he wanted a fight, he would have to take it to his enemy. He moved in warily, flexing the muscles of his left arm trying to get it back into operation. He tried his best combination move only to find it completely blocked and his legs swept out from under him. He landed heavily on his back, and an iron elbow drove into his solar plexus. It took a massive effort to continue breathing and not pass out. He looked up to see that Ranma had backed off a little distance.

"I don't want to fight you today, Ryoga. Just get up and leave."

The boy growled, and managed to climb to his knees, staring with hate-filled eyes at his rival. He started to glow green, feeding all of his despair and depression into a massive Shi Shi Hokodan strike.

"Ryoga, stop it! There's no point to this, and you've been warned what that stuff does to you!"

"I don't care, Ranma, so long as I can see you in hell!"

The green glow intensified quickly, when suddenly, from off to the side, a large red ball of chi slammed into Ryoga and threw him against the school wall. He bounced off of the wall, leaving a visible dent in it, and collapsed to the ground. The boy rolled over onto one side and looked up dazedly, to see Akane glaring down at him murderously.

"Akane!" he gasped. "Please! You have to let me explain!"

"Explain what, you pervert!" she shouted. "How you used your curse to see me undressed and to sleep in my bed! How you used it to listen to my secrets, and then tried to use them to drive Ranma and me apart! Just what do you imagine that you can explain!"

Ryoga was having trouble focusing, but he cringed at what he could make out of Akane's expression. "But I did it because I love you! And Ranma doesn't deserve you, all he ever does is insult you and fight with you!"

"_Love_!" She clenched her fists, and spat on the ground. "_You_ don't know the meaning of the word! You used me, you abused and betrayed my trust! You allowed me to think that you were a friend while all the time you were manipulating me, trying to make me mistrust Ranma, acting as if he were picking on my friend and my pet for no good reason, and _still_ he kept your dirty little secret! Ranma at his worst was one hundred times the man that you will _ever_ be, and he at least has been growing up. I would rather have declarations of love from Tatewaki Kuno than from you!"

Ryoga stared up at her from the ground, shell shocked, his mouth opening and closing but with no sound coming out. Akane snorted a breath out through her mouth and nostrils, as if clearing them of something that smelled bad, and then spun around to put her back to the defeated young man and held out her hand toward her fiancé.

"Come, Ranma, it's time to go home. Let us leave the pig where he belongs, lying in the mud and dead leaves."

Ranma held an arm out toward Ryoga for a moment, palm out and fingers up, in a gesture of parting, a look not of sympathy but perhaps of regret and pity in his eyes. He then took Akane's hand and together they walked off, toward their watching friends and the school gate, leaving the boy behind them to wallow in his despair, unable even now to understand what it was that he had done wrong.


	15. The Wedding

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 15. The Wedding**

The day after the school term ended, they packed the car for the drive down to Nerima. Ranma was so certain he was forgetting something that he checked three times that the rings were packed. Akane and Kasumi likewise checked on the wedding dresses and tuxedos, though only twice apiece. During the drive, as they maneuvered through heavy traffic, Akane realized that she was starting to feel anxious again.

"Do you really think we're going to be able to pull this off?" she asked, addressing no one in particular.

Kasumi answered, projecting calm reassurance for all she was worth. "Now little sister, you need to stop worrying. Everything has gone fine so far, and you know very well that the worst offenders from the previous wedding will not be there. We've taken precautions to make sure that no uninvited people will show up either, and _we've_ been in control of the guest list this time, not Nabiki."

Akane stared unseeing out of the car window, neither calm nor reassured. "I suppose," she agreed reluctantly. "The last attempt just left me a bit ... traumatized, I guess. There's no way to prevent Hibiki from 'accidentally' stumbling onto the location, and either Happosai or Taro could easily follow us there if they wanted to make trouble."

Ranma tightened his arm which already lay across his fiancée's shoulders, and she pressed back more firmly against him, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. With an effort she forced her tense muscles to relax, trying to let the slight motions of the car soothe her.

"Ranma," she declared firmly in a 'no-argument' tone of voice, her eyes still closed, "you are not sleeping in the guest room tonight. I don't care what daddy or anybody else says, I won't survive the next week and a half if I can't get any sleep because of nightmares."

There was a moment's silence and then, in a tremulous voice, Kasumi asked, "Akane, have you and Ranma been sleeping together?"

She still didn't open her eyes. Her answer was matter-of-fact, even dismissive. "We have been sleeping in the same bed, yes, but we haven't been doing anything else." Her eyes blinked open as she reconsidered this, and went on thoughtfully. "Well, actually, we have been doing some other things, but not what you were thinking." A hint of indignation then entered her voice, as she pointed out, "In any event, you'd be a fine one to lecture me about it when you and Tofu have been sleeping together in every sense of the word for several months now."

Kasumi blushed. "Even so, you're still very young ..."

Akane was quick to cut her off, her fears temporarily pushed aside by the argument, mild though it was. "Don't give me that, Kasumi. I'm eighteen, and you're only three years older than me. Also, I'm going to be married in just over a week. If I'll be old enough then, I'm certainly old enough now."

"She's right, you know." Tofu grinned at his fiancée.

"_You_ stay out of this, if you know what's good for you." Kasumi warned, wagging an admonitory finger at him. "In any event, if they're sharing a bed, even if it is just to sleep, then they'd best be prepared for an argument with daddy."

Akane sighed deeply, and nodded. She had already realized that.

"Um, how about us?" Tofu asked plaintively. "I'd rather not be sleeping in the guest room either, and besides, they probably need all the space that they can get for the wedding guests who will be arriving."

Kasumi bit her lip, torn between her desire to be with Tofu on the one hand and the pull of her long accustomed role as her father's dutiful daughter on the other. Finally, she gave a deep sigh and slowly replied, "I suppose you're right, and if Akane is already going to broach this argument with father, then we might as well up the ante and make the argument for both of us. He'll probably cry a great deal, but in the end I think he will accept it." Thinking about how he would react called to mind past incidents, and the anger she had not allowed herself to show at those times began to surface. "Actually, considering some of the things that he and Uncle Saotome tried in the past to get Akane and Ranma together, he has very little logical position from which to protest, not that logic has ever been of any importance to him."

Ranma decided to weigh in with his opinion. "What if we just carry the luggage upstairs and put it in the rooms we plan to use, acting as if it's our decision, which after all it is? If he wants to argue about it, let him start it."

Akane opened her eyes, and smiled at him. "You're right, Ranma. We'll do it that way."

* * *

Their arrival at the Tendo home was a little more sedate this time. As they walked into the yard, Soun Tendo walked up to them quickly and pulled his two daughters into a massive hug.

"Hello daddy, where is everybody?" Kasumi wanted to know as soon as he released them, and she had a chance to look around and notice how quiet it was. She wasn't used to her old home looking and sounding so deserted.

Her father looked around as if the quiet was vaguely disturbing to him as well, before answering. "Well, Nabiki is also due home today, from the university, but her train won't arrive for another two hours. The Saotome's are still at their house, although they are expecting to come over later and all of us will be going out together for dinner. The plans for the wedding reception are all ready, and I trust the same goes for the ceremony as well, even if you haven't let us help with it. Where will it be again?"

Kasumi gave her father a small smile. "Now daddy, don't be like that. Yes, everything's fine."

"So are you finally going to tell us where the four of you have been living?"

His oldest daughter nodded. "Yes, actually. With some of Akane's and Ranma's school friends coming down for the wedding, it would be kind of hard to keep it a secret where they're from or what school they attend. We're living up in Sendai, and Akane and Ranma are attending Masamune High School, and doing pretty well, too. Don't let us forget to give you our address later."

"Sendai?" He grimaced. "Well I suppose I should be happy that it's not someplace on Hokkaido or Okinawa, anyway."

"Actually, once we've settled back down after our honeymoons, we'd be willing to have you come up to visit us," Kasumi offered. Only after she made this suggestion did she pause to wonder whether the other three would agree.

"Hmmph. Well, come inside and get settled, so we can talk. I want to hear about everything that's happened since summer."

* * *

New Year's Day, which would fall on a Sunday that year, was fast approaching. On the night of Friday the 30th, Akane and Ranma went out to dinner, just the two of them, for a little time alone together. Lingering over the remains of the excellent meal, Ranma reached over to capture Akane's hand.

"Say, Akane, do you realize that this is the first real date we've ever been on here in Nerima?"

Akane considered the observation, then inclined her head in agreement. "I guess you're right. I don't think we would have dared before. Just think of how many people would have shown up by now to ruin everything."

Ranma gave her an urchin grin. "Heh, yeah. I gotta admit I like it like this a lot better. Peaceful, y'know? So, you feeling nervous about Sunday?"

She smiled demurely, pulling her hands free and putting them into her lap. "Do you mean the wedding, the reception, or ... later that night?"

"Well, I guess I was thinking of both the wedding and the night." He smiled at her, but there was a touch of worry in his eyes.

Akane's expression grew more sober. "You already know how anxious I am about the wedding, there's no point in rehashing that again. On the one hand, I'm definitely looking forward to marrying you, and on the other, we both know what a lot could go wrong. I know we've done everything we could to prevent stuff that happened last time, but ... what if they come up with something new? Something we haven't prepared for? What if they manage to ruin this time too? I really just want it to be over, with the two of us safely married and no way for anyone else to break us up or get between us."

Her gaze became introspective as she considered the other half of his question, and a smile hovered at the corners of her lips. "As for that night, yes, I am a little nervous, but not much. We've gotten to know each other pretty well, and we've been getting gradually more intimate with one another." She blushed as she recalled just what his hands had done to her in bed the previous evening before they fell asleep. "I'm ready for the next step. I have been for some time, really."

Ranma chuckled. "Can you imagine what it would have been like last March, if the wedding then had come off, when we found ourselves alone together later than night?"

Akane rolled her eyes, and laughed in reply. "Oh, God. I'd have probably been scrunched to one side of the bed as far as I could go, with my mallet lying between us. We definitely weren't ready then."

"Yeah, and I probably would have picked a fight with you just so I'd have an excuse to storm away and blame it all on you." He shook his head as he thought of how much of a fool he had been. "All in all, I think things have worked out a whole lot better. Do you suppose that some kami was having fun with our lives before, but finally got bored and decided to leave us alone?"

"Shush! Don't tempt fate!" She looked around a little wildly, almost as if afraid that some mischievous spirit might be dining in the restaurant with them, ready to take his words as a challenge. Thus it was that she saw the couple approaching them.

"Ranma," she hissed in a whisper, putting her hands on the table and leaning forward. "Heads up. Ukyo and Konatsu are coming over here."

Ranma gave no physical indication that he had heard her, but his awareness of his surroundings was instantly heightened as a result of her words. He reached across the table and took one of her hands in his. As the pair came up it hit them with a bit of a shock that Konatsu was wearing slacks and a shirt, while Ukyo was in a dress.

"Ranma. Akane." Ukyo's voice was flat, while Konatsu looked distressed. Clearly he would have preferred that this encounter not take place. "A curious coincidence, the two of you choosing the same restaurant as us tonight."

Akane answered sadly. "It is just a coincidence, Ukyo. If we'd seen the two of you when we first came in, we would have gone someplace else to eat. Believe me, we have no desire to hurt you any more than we already have."

Ukyo closed her eyes, then took a deep breath and let it back out, opening her eyes once more. "I know." Her voice sounded a little hoarse. "To tell the truth, I've gotten over most of the pain, and have started getting on with my life." She reached over to the side blindly. Konatsu caught the seeking hand in his own, and held it as though he didn't intend to let it go again. "Konatsu and I started dating a while back, and what I've come to feel for him so far has made me realize that the feelings I had for you, Ranma, weren't exactly what I thought they were. It still hurts, a lot, but I've come to accept that, maybe, it was for the best."

"I'm glad Ukyo, really. We want you to be happy," Ranma told her seriously.

"Yeah, sugar, I'm getting there. Slowly. Um, listen. Konatsu here accepted your invitation to the wedding of course, and I know I turned mine down, but I was wondering if, maybe, you could still let me come? I don't think it'll be as bad as I thought it would, and I think it'll give me a sense of closure."

Ranma answered after a glance over at Akane, who squeezed his hand gently, indicating her silent agreement. "Sure Ukyo. We'd be glad to have you there."

"Thanks. So, um, anyway we were on our way out. We're heading over to the new nightclub that's opened two blocks east. I'd appreciate it if we don't see you there?"

Akane smiled. "Don't worry. We were just going to take a walk in the park and then head home. Tomorrow is the final preparations for both the ceremony and reception, and there's still tons to do. We need to get a good night's sleep."

Ukyo nodded, trying a tentative smile of her own. She and Konatsu turned aside and moved toward the door, walking together away from the past and toward a future. Ukyo's head was high, and her step was confident once more.

* * *

Early Sunday morning found the two brides-to-be together in the restroom. Kasumi had her hand on her younger sister's forehead, as Akane finished vomiting into the toilet.

"Perhaps you shouldn't have had that champagne at midnight last night, Akane," Kasumi suggested, expressing both sympathy and concern.

The younger sister grimaced, as she rinsed out her mouth. She spat and then answered. "I doubt that the champagne had anything to do with it. I suspect it's just nerves. Oh, but I'm going to be _so_ happy when today is over with."

Kasumi gave a knowing smirk. "Does that include tonight?"

Akane stuck her tongue out at her older sister. "You know very well what I meant."

She was still a little unsteady on her feet, so Kasumi offered her an arm for support. The two women emerged from the room, only to be shoved aside as Tofu Ono dashed in. A moment later they heard the sound of retching from inside. Akane chuckled weakly while Kasumi rolled her eyes.

"I believe that I'll be happy when it's over with as well," the older sister said primly, then surprised herself with a chuckle of her own.

By nine in the morning, a large crowd had already gathered in the yard of the Tendo home. Akane and Kasumi had gone on ahead by taxi, to get dressed and ready for the ceremony, leaving Ranma, Tofu, and the parents to greet their guests. Ranma introduced their friends from Masamune to their friends from Furinkan, and he and Tofu stood at the gate welcoming other friends and relatives as they arrived. Ukyo and Konatsu were among the last to appear, walking in just as the bus pulled up in front and the guests started climbing aboard.

Amazingly, all of the people who had accepted wedding invitations were checked off as present and accounted for as they boarded the bus, and it drove off promptly at 9:30, headed for Suginami. Nodoka noticed that Ranma was fidgeting quite a lot.

"Ranma, my son, whatever is the matter? You seem to be quite agitated."

"Um, sorry, Mom. It's just that nothing has gone really wrong yet. I'm getting worried that something terrible has yet to happen, to achieve some sort of karmic balance."

His mother sat there with her mouth open for a moment, then scoffed, tossing her head. "Goodness, you're superstitious. Now hold your tongue, before you start to get me all worked up as well."

On arriving at their destination, when Ranma entered the nearly deserted hall, he bumped into one of the decorators carrying a couple of last minute vases of flowers to set up for the ceremony. One of the vases tilted, tipping a cascade of water down the back of Ranma's neck, triggering the curse.

"Ahhhhh!" onna-Ranma screamed, too upset to be circumspect. "Watch where you're going!"

"Um, sorry miss," the man replied, wondering why such a pretty girl was wearing a tuxedo instead of a dress to the wedding.

Akane, dressed and pacing as she waited, heard the scream and grimaced wryly, correctly guessing what must have happened. She opened the door to the room which she and Kasumi had used to dress, to see Ranma stomping by in his cursed form. Akane giggled and took him by the arm. "Okay, this was bound to happen, so now you've got it over with. Come on, baka, let's find you some hot water."

A few minutes later, a once-more male Ranma emerged from a restroom, only to walk straight into the priest who would be performing the ceremony. The priest happened to be sipping from a glass of water, which promptly spilled down Ranma's front.

"Oh, excuse me young ... lady? Um, I'm very sorry about that."

Ranma stood there with his eyes closed, counting slowly to ten as his fists clenched and unclenched. He turned around and headed back into the restroom. A minute later the door opened again, and a head very slowly peeked out and looked carefully both ways before its body followed. As he walked down the hall toward the room where he and Tofu were to wait, his head was swiveling from side to side, looking for any sign of water.

He walked through the door into the room, and almost walked straight into his fellow groom, who was holding a glass of water.

"Aaah! Keep that water away from me!"

"Relax, Ranma. I'm not going to splash it on you. I was just going to step out for a moment to the restroom."

They stepped past each other, and as Tofu reached for the door it suddenly swung open right into him, knocking him back onto his rump. Soun Tendo looked into the room at his two prospective sons-in-law, one sitting on the floor, with an empty glass beside him.

"Um, just wanted to check if you two were all right. Ranma, why are you in your girl form? Surely you should be male when you marry my daughter."

The fuming redhead marched past him and back to the restroom once again, followed a moment later by a sheepish Tofu.

"I, uh, think I won't bring anything to drink back with me this time."

"Thanks, Doc, I'd _really_ appreciate that."

Ranma walked back from the restroom looking rather like a cat crossing a greased tightwire strung above a swimming pool, but made it safely. He and Tofu sat in the room for a while, not speaking to one another, each deep in his own thoughts. Eventually the door to the room opened, and Genma Saotome stuck his head in.

"The ladies are ready now, gentlemen. Time to take your places."

Ranma grabbed the doctor as he started to faint. "Come on now, doc, you can do it. You don't want to upset Kasumi."

The two men moved to the front of the hall and stood before the priest, looking out over the assembled guests. The wedding march started to play, and the doors at the other end of the hall opened, to admit Soun Tendo with a daughter on each arm. They made a stately progress up the aisle, where he then turned a daughter over to each of the men. Unfortunately, due to his tears, he handed them to the wrong men, but the mistake was quickly rectified with only minor tittering from the assembly.

Before the minister could begin the ceremony, the doors at the back were flung open to admit a very old and diminutive master of the martial arts. "Hey! How come I wasn't invited to your wedding!"

Genma and Soun rushed down the aisle and fell to their knees in front of him. "Oh, please master! If you'll just sit quietly for the ceremony, we promise that you will receive the garters afterward!"

Happosai tapped his chin consideringly. "Oh, very well." He plopped down into a chair and motioned for them to proceed.

The priest began the ceremony, and with no further interruptions reached the time for the vows.

"Do you Ranma Saotome take Akane Tendo to be your wife, in the holy estate of matrimony? Will you love her, comfort her, honor and keep her, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, for better, for worse, in sadness and in joy, to cherish and continually bestow upon her your heart's deepest devotion, forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto her as long as you both shall live?"

"I do." His voice was firm, without hesitation.

"Do you Akane Tendo take Ranma Saotome to be your husband, ..." Ranma watched the face of his bride as the priest spoke the words. She was smiling at him, her face uncovered, having refused to wear a veil. He lost himself in that smile, only realizing that the priest had stopped because her voice spoke.

"I do." Almost whispered, but stated with conviction.

The vows were then repeated for Tofu Ono and Kasumi Tendo. Tofu's glasses started to fog up, and Ranma had to nudge him with an elbow, but he got his response out.

"What token of your love do you offer?"

Four hands held up wedding rings for him to see.

"May these rings be blessed ..." Akane lost the thread of the priest's words, looking at the man to whom she had just pledged herself. His eyes were so deep today, that she thought she could drown in them. It was always his eyes which had drawn her back after their troubles. No matter what arrogance, or foolishness, or denials he had engaged in, when he came to her afterward and looked at her, with or without an apology on his lips, she would look at herself reflected in those deep blue eyes and somehow know that she would have a place forever within him.

"Will the grooms now place the rings on their brides' fingers, and make their pledge?"

She felt like she was coming out of a trance as Ranma took her hand in his, and slowly placed a ring on her finger. She was dimly aware of the same happening beside her with her sister.

"... with this ring, I thee wed."

"Will the brides now place the rings on the grooms' fingers, and make their pledge?"

The two sisters took the hands in front of them and placed the rings on the appropriate fingers, reciting the words they had memorized.

"... with this ring, I thee wed."

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husbands and wives, and may your days be good and long upon the earth. You may now kiss the brides."

Ranma gathered Akane into his arms, looking deep into her eyes, and thought back over the more than two and a half years which had brought them to this point. He knew that he would willingly go through all of it all over again just to reach this destination. He bent his head down toward hers.

"I love you, Akane." His lips pressed firmly to hers, as beside him Tofu was doing the same to Kasumi. The kisses lasted no more than a few seconds each, but at the same time sealed the transition from the lives that were to the lives that would be.

"I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Saotome, and Mr. and Mrs. Ono."

The audience broke out into applause, as the couples made their way down the aisle.

Outside the hall, the female guests gathered together, while first Akane and then Kasumi threw their bouquets. Sayuri caught Akane's bouquet, while Ukyo caught Kasumi's. The latter turned to lift an eyebrow at Konatsu, who was observed to swallow hard and tug at his collar with a finger.

In the meantime, Ranma had left his new wife's side, and wandered over to a shadowed recess by the doors.

"I hardly expected to see you here, old ghoul."

"I took Shampoo back to China as I promised, sonny boy. But you, and the Tendo girl as well, were a major part of my life for the last couple of years. I wanted to see the conclusion. I'll be leaving again straightaway."

"How is Shampoo doing?"

"Moping around depressed mostly. Her punishment ended up being pretty light, as I predicted. She's currently working as a servant for our representative to the Musk, not the most pleasant of tasks with their attitude toward females. Afterward, she's going to be put through our entire training regimen, from the beginning. Granted you taught the Tendo girl, and I always knew she had lots of potential, but an Amazon warrior who had trained for years should never have lost so easily."

"So is it good-bye for good this time?"

"It should be. I have no reason to return that I know of."

"I don't suppose you'd consider taking Happosai with you?"

The old woman chuckled. "Not on your life. He caused far too much trouble the first time he visited our village, and I was a lot younger then. No, he's your problem young Ranma, but not, I think, for very much longer. You may not have noticed yet, but his ability to recharge himself from female chi is not as effective as it was even a year ago. I think that soon, perhaps half a year at most, his strength will start to fade."

Ranma grunted. "I can't say that I'll be sorry."

Cologne just nodded. Ranma turned away, and she faded back into the shadows.

* * *

Later at the reception, Ranma was dancing with Akane. He looked across the room to where their fathers were drinking themselves into oblivion, and his mother was having a lively conversation with Tofu's mother.

"So, do you feel any different?"

"Yes, actually, I do," she replied. "I hadn't really expected to, but I feel like I've changed in some fundamental way."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. When he pronounced us husband and wife today, it felt to me like the world stopped for a moment and then started up again. Nothing's really changed, but at the same time everything has."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know. It's just what I feel."

He brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek. "I've never seen you more beautiful than you are today, not even last March in your previous wedding dress."

"Thank you, Ranma," she said softly, laying her face against his chest.

"I still can't believe everything went as well as it did. I got hit with water a couple of times, and both Happosai and Cologne found the wedding, oh and lets not forget your dad trying to marry me to Kasumi and you to Doc Tofu, but no major problems."

She pulled back and looked up into his face. "Cologne was there?"

"Um, yeah. Shoot. I hadn't meant to mention that to you. She didn't cause no trouble, she just watched without letting anyone know she was there, and we talked for a few minutes afterward. She should already be on her way back to China."

"Oh, okay, I guess. I'm glad I didn't know earlier, I would have worried about it. I guess that like Ukyo, she might have wanted a sense of closure to all of the craziness. Speaking of Ukyo, did you see that look she gave to Konatsu after catching Kasumi's bouquet."

"No, I guess I missed that." He chuckled. "I wish I had seen it. I think that was when I was talking to Cologne."

"I can't believe that our fathers made Kasumi and I give our garters to Happosai."

"Huh. I don't begrudge it. It was worth it to keep him in line during the ceremony, and it seemed to work."

She nodded. "How much longer, anyway?"

"We just need to stick it out for another fifteen minutes, then we can leave. That will give us time to change and get down to the station to catch our train. Poor Kasumi and Tofu have to stick around for another hour."

"Better them than us. It was a beautiful ceremony, and I've actually enjoyed the reception, but I'm ready to be alone with my husband now."

"Heh. I'm ready too. Why don't we go over and grab a little more cake and punch before we go? Our school friends are over in that area, so we can say good-bye to them at the same time, before we take off."

"Sounds good to me."

* * *

That night, in a room in an inn up in the mountains, Ranma stepped out of the private bathing room with a towel wrapped around his waist. His wife was standing at the window, looking down into the valley below them, wearing only the yellow negligee that their friends had given her at the engagement party. The small amount of light coming in through the window silhouetted her body through the sheer material.

"You truly are beautiful," he said huskily as he came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Mmmm, thank you." She leaned her head back against him, then turned around in his arms and pressed her lips against his. "You're pretty handsome, yourself."

As they continued kissing, he undid the ties of her outfit, and pushed it down to puddle around her feet on the floor. A moment later, she had caused his towel to join it. He scooped her up into his arms, and carried her to the bed.

"No holding back this time, right?" he asked in a deep whisper.

"No holding back, ever again. From this moment, I am yours and you are mine, forever."


	16. Final Term

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 16. Final Term**

The honeymoon was everything Akane and Ranma could have wished, and more. It was uninterrupted by family, by rivals, by freak accidents, by any of the disruptions which had marked the entire time that they had known each other. Even the trip back to Sendai was uneventful. It was on a dreary January day that they climbed out of a taxi in front of their building, feeling a little letdown to be heading back to the normal routine. The other two weren't back yet, so it fell to them to pick up the accumulated mail, before mounting the stairs to the fifth floor. Ranma turned the key and opened the door of the apartment, then turned back to lift his new wife up into his arms, causing her to drop the mail she had been shuffling through.

"Ranma, what are you doing!"

"It's a western tradition. I'm going to carry you across the threshold."

She giggled. "Okay. Just don't drop me, baka."

Ranma gave her a look of hurt pride. "Now as many times as I've carried you before, why do you think that I would drop you this time?"

He set her back on her feet inside, then went back out into the hallway to pick up the hefty stack of mail scattered all over the floor. Two envelopes in particular caught his attention. "Here are the letters from school, Akane. Do you want to look at my grades first, or yours?"

"Yours. I'm pretty sure I did okay, but I want to see if you did any better."

He slit the envelope open, and pulled out the report, scanning it quickly, but holding it so that she couldn't catch even a glimpse of what was on it. A hang-dog expression came over his face and his shoulders slumped forward in defeat.

"Oh no!" Akane cried out. "How bad is it?"

Ranma shook his head, his face working with emotion. "It's pretty bad," he said. "B- in math and B in English. No C's at all. A, A-, and two B+'s. That makes it a B+ average!" He ended on a note of triumph and laughter, defending himself against Akane's mock anger. Once she had pulled the report out of his hands, though, she settled back, confirming the grades for herself.

"Oops, you've got me a little worried now. My average last term was a B+."

Ranma smirked playfully. "What's the matter, can't handle the competition?"

She gave him an ambiguous look, then slit open the envelope with her name on it, pulling out the sheet and unfolding it. "Three A's, two B+'s, and a B. Not bad. I got the English up from a B to a B, but the history dropped from a B+ to a B, so you're ahead of me in that subject with your A-. Luckily, I don't have to worry about home ec anymore, since that was only the first term. Still, an A- average is pretty good."

"Yep, now we just need to keep these grades up and prepare for the entrance exams."

Akane shuddered slightly. "Don't remind me. I'm already nervous enough about them."

Her husband leered at her in a way that made her knees weak. "Heh. What do you say we go back to the bedroom and I help you take your mind off of them? I've been thinking about making this a proper homecoming all the way here from the inn, and since Kasumi and Tofu won't be back until tomorrow, we can be as loud as we want."

"Oooh. Are you planning to make me scream?"

"Over and over again."

* * *

Thus it was a couple of hours later before they headed down to the dojo, to get in some practice. Ranma in particular was concerned that they hadn't done any since two days before the wedding. Akane was less worried, but still eager to resume their training. They walked in to find a class on its way out.

"Hello, Hikari-san, we're back!"

The older man looked around, a smile lighting his face. "Saotome-san! Tendo-san! It's good to see you again."

"Ah-ah. My name is Saotome now also," Akane reminded him, holding out the hand with the wedding ring.

The dojo's master gave her a small bow. "Of course; I forgot. I am very sorry that I was unable to attend. I hope the wedding was perfect, and that you enjoyed your honeymoon."

Akane's voice was all bubbly cheerfulness. "The wedding was much better than I was expecting; there were only a few minor problems. And the honeymoon was wonderful. Also, by some miracle, nobody from Nerima mentioned Ranma's curse to any of our friends from Sendai, at least so far as we know."

Ranma gave her an inscrutable look. "Yeah, and how much was that due to those little talks you had with our friends in Nerima that you didn't invite me along for?" He nearly laughed at the look on her face. "Didn't know I knew about that, did you? And after the trouble I got into for doing something without consulting you. I admit, I am a little curious as to just what you threatened to do to them." Akane was blushing, and refused to meet his eyes.

Saeto ignored the byplay, and simply congratulated the young couple. "It is good to hear that things went so well, I am very happy for you. Now, if you do not mind, I need to step out for a little while. If you leave before I get back, please lock up for me."

"Of course. See you later."

The newlyweds started warming up and running through some katas. Akane was now as fast as Ranma's male form on the basic katas, and only a little slower on all but the most complex of the ones he had taught her so far. They took a breather before starting to spar.

"I'll be happy when we have the entrance exams over with and know how we did," Ranma said.

Akane responded to this in a supportive tone. "I'm sure you'll do fine, Ranma. You've brought your grades up nicely, and it's not like we're planning to apply to Tokyo University."

For Ranma, this brought up a previously unconsidered question. With a quizzical look, he asked, "So where do you think that we should apply?"

Akane had previously given this a little thought, and shared her opinion with him. "Well, if possible I'd like to stay here in Sendai. If we go someplace in Tokyo, we'd be under a lot of pressure to live with my father, and I'd like to stay independent a while longer. Besides, I've come to like it here, and we might be able to be in school with some of our friends from Masamune."

"I don't think I could get into Tohoku University," Ranma replied in a tone which ridiculed the idea that he could achieve such a thing. Then he continued more thoughtfully, "But, on the other hand, Sendai College is a good place for physical education."

"Yeah, we'll probably go to Sendai College. Although I can't see that it would hurt to try for Tohoku. The worst you can do is humiliate yourself utterly." She was grinning at him; he stuck his tongue out at her. Her fond smile faded again and she sighed. "We should probably consider a couple of other places as well, outside of Sendai. We can talk to the guidance counselor about that."

"If we do go to school here, I'm not sure that I'd want to continue living with Tofu and Kasumi," Ranma suggested, seeking her reaction. "It should be okay for another term, but now that we're all married, it would be better to have some more privacy, so we'd all probably be happier with our own places."

Akane nodded. "I agree. Once we know where we're going, we can get in touch with the school and see if they have recommendations for apartments for married students that are decent and not too expensive."

"Sounds good to me. You finished procrastinating and ready to suffer now?"

"Bring it on, Ranma."

While bathing afterward, Akane reflected with pride that she had managed to lay him out flat on his back not once, but twice during the session. Of course, he certainly wasn't going all out against her, and she was knocked flat seven times herself, but even so she was very pleased.

* * *

It was the final term of their final year of high school, on the first day of classes, and the bell was going to ring in about two minutes. The other students were gossiping about the wedding some of them had attended over break, what the honeymoon might have been like, and wondering where the newlyweds were. With about one minute to go before the bell, the couple in question tried to slide through the door as if hoping they wouldn't be noticed, realizing the futility as every eye turned toward them.

It was a sight to see. Both of them looked like they had had the worst bad hair day ever, with Ranma's pigtail in particular needing some significant repair work. They were both flushed and breathing heavily, looking a bit fatigued. Ranma's shirt was mostly untucked, and was pulled up in back showing some scratches. Akane had not realized that the zipper on the back of her dress was partially down until one of her friends leaned over and whispered to her.

There was shocked silence for a moment followed by a mass outbreak of giggling from the girls and chuckling from the boys, as everyone in the classroom instantly leaped to the same conclusion. Everyone was wondering what nook of the school they had selected for their tryst, but did not have time to ask before the bell rang. The two newlyweds blushed heavily, fully realizing what their fellow students were thinking, and trying not to notice all of the knowing glances being sent their way.

Worst of all, they didn't want to tell anyone the truth. So far, they had managed to leave most of the craziness back in Nerima, and were regarded here as being more or less normal. So they had no intention of trying to tell their classmates that they had been attacked on the way to school by a weirdly-named Chinese boy who had been cursed in the pool of drowned yeti holding an eel and crane riding an ox. They had won easily of course, especially as Pantyhose wasn't expecting Akane's current level of skill, but that was neither here nor there at the moment. All that they could do was grit their teeth and allow everyone to assume that the two had been doing something right before class which was sufficient to muss their clothing to that degree.

The notes which landed on their desks were unceremoniously dumped unread into the wastebasket between classes, and they managed to avoid responding to any inquiries. At lunchtime, however, Akane was surrounded by a circle of girls and Ranma likewise by a circle of boys, and they found themselves forced to sit apart to eat, unable to reach one another unless they had been willing to use force.

"Okay, Ranma, what was it like?"

"What was what like?"

"Oh, come _on_ man. Akane's a hot babe. What's she like in bed?"

Ranma stared at the boy, who was little more than an acquaintance, then slapped his right fist into the palm of his left hand, hard. "Let me make one thing perfectly clear. The next question of that sort is going to result in the questioner digesting some of his own teeth. All I'll say is that Akane is wonderful, that I love her very much, and that I enjoy being married to her."

"Kenji said that there were a couple of minor incidents at the wedding. Something about your fathers making a spectacle of themselves when some old man showed up unexpectedly, and the father of the brides getting them mixed up."

Ranma snorted at the memory. "Yeah, that's about all that happened, unless you want to count the other groom throwing up before the wedding, and the fact that I got water poured on me not once, not twice, but three times before the ceremony started."

There was some general laughter. "He forgot to mention that last part."

Kenji defended himself. "I didn't know about it, I guess it happened backstage. I suppose that explains why his hair and tux looked a bit damp when things got started."

"So how was the honeymoon?" When Ranma scowled at him, the student who had asked the question quickly added, "I mean, in general, y'know? As a vacation? Not trying to pry into the personal stuff."

Ranma relaxed again. "It was pretty nice actually. We went to this remote inn up in the mountains. There was a nice hot spring there that we took advantage of, and the food was great, fabulous even. We found time to take several long hikes. Built a huge snowman in this clearing that we found where the snow had piled up pretty deep. We had a lot of fun." He decided to cave in a little to their grins at this last statement. "... in every sense."

Over in the other group, Akane was wishing that she could be sharing her lunch privately with her husband, but knew it was not to be that day.

"So how was the wedding, Akane?"

Akane's eyes unfocused. "It was beautiful, so much nicer than I was expecting. Well, not that that was difficult, since I was expecting a disaster. Ranma looked so handsome in his tuxedo, and I kept getting lost in his eyes and losing track of what the priest was saying."

There were sighs from several of the girls.

"How did you feel when he said you were married? You know, when he said 'I now pronounce you husband and wife'?"

Akane's voice was hesitant when answering this. "I felt ... different, somehow. It was very powerful, but I really don't know how to describe it. I'm sorry, but I just don't think I have the words."

"How about the honeymoon?"

A big smile appeared on Akane's face, and her eyes lit up. "Oh it was wonderful! We went to this lovely inn up in the mountains, and had so much fun. We went on several hikes, and it had this spa where I had a great massage."

"Yeah, yeah. But what about the _other_ stuff that the two of you did together?"

Akane blushed. "I really don't want to discuss that. Let's just say it was as wonderful as I'd been hoping."

"Even the first time? Or maybe it wasn't your first time?"

"It ... it was. Um. Look, I really don't want to talk about it, it's embarrassing and ... private. It was good and ... the next time was lots better. Now that's _all_ I'm going to say, please change the subject."

"Aww, spoilsport. I wanted to ask about how he was hung and stuff like that." Seeing the look on Akane's face, she suddenly decided on discretion. "But as you say, we'll change the subject."

* * *

Ranma rolled over from the position he had been in, and lay down on the bed beside his wife, pulling her into his arms with her head on his chest. They were both still breathing hard.

"I must be the luckiest guy in the world."

"Mmmm. Let's not argue about who's luckier, lover." Akane then went on, a little more hesitantly. "Ranma, do you ever think about trying this in your female form?"

Ranma grinned in a mocking fashion. "You don't have the right plumbing to do what we just did with me as the female."

She slapped her hand on his chest. "Baka. I'm being serious. I'm talking about making love in general, as two women."

Ranma sighed. This conversation was bound to come up sooner or later, and in bed together was a logical time to discuss it. "All right, then, I'll be serious. Yes, of course I've _thought_ about it; given my curse it would be kind of surprising if the thought had never occurred to me. If the question is whether I've ever seriously considered attempting to talk you into trying it, then the answer is 'no' for a couple of reasons.

"First, and the primary consideration, is that I didn't think that you would be comfortable with it. I've never seen any indication that you feel any sexual attraction to other women, let alone that you actively contemplated engaging in any such acts with any female, even with me in that form. Am I wrong?"

"No, you're right, I've never had any desire along those lines. Well, except for a few naughty sexual fantasies involving your female form specifically, that tend to leave me feeling a little uncomfortable afterward. But you're my husband and I love you. If it was something you wanted, then I think I could bring myself to experiment with it."

Ranma smiled down at the top of her head. "Secondly, I'm not comfortable with the idea either. True, I've accepted that I'll probably always be stuck with this curse, and that I need to spend time regularly as a female in order to control the number of accidents that I have with water. Still, that's not the same thing as _enjoying_ being female. I was raised as a male, and that's my orientation, so my female form still feels fundamentally wrong to me and probably always will. While I'll admit to a few, um, experiments on myself in that form, I don't feel any temptation or desire to have sex with you as a woman. If I ever feel differently, I'll let you know, but I just don't see it happening."

Akane snuggled against him closer. "Good. I just didn't want to leave the issue unaddressed any longer. I'm glad to have it out in the open and to know for sure; now I won't have to worry about it."

"So, um, what other sorts of 'naughty' sexual fantasies have you had, that don't involve me being a female? ..."

* * *

Several weeks passed during which the couples gradually became accustomed to their married state. The time finally arrived for an event to which none of them had been particularly looking forward, the first visit from the parents. At the station, they watched as the train they had been awaiting came to a stop, and the doors opened, disgorging passengers. The three parents came out, looking about expectantly. Kasumi spotted them first, and raised her hand, waving.

"Daddy! Daddy, over here!"

The two groups met and hugs were exchanged between the two newlywed couples, Soun Tendo, and Ranma's parents.

"Welcome to Sendai," Tofu Ono proclaimed. "If you'll hand your luggage to Ranma and me, we can get to the car and head back to the apartment. I'm afraid it will be a little crowded," then added, with a small shrug and a slight, engaging smile, "but nobody wanted to stay behind."

"It won't be that crowded," Akane complained. "We can squeeze four in the back seat, so as long as I sit in Ranma's lap, we'll manage."

"I'm so looking forward to seeing your apartment, children," Nodoka gushed.

Tofu was trying to maneuver them to the exit. "We're looking forward to having you there. This way please."

The plan was for all three visitors to share Akane's and Ranma's room during their stay. Ranma's parents would share one of the futons, and Soun Tendo would take the other, while Akane and Ranma slept in the room with Kasumi and Tofu, using sleeping bags. They figured that they could manage with the inconvenience, as it would only be for one weekend.

That night they all went out together for dinner, to the same restaurant where they had once shared a dinner with Cologne. Once Genma determined that the children intended to pay for the meal, he wasted no time in ordering large quantities of food.

"So son, daughter-in-law, can we expect any grandchildren yet?" Nodoka was smiling beatifically as she posed the question.

Luckily Ranma was drinking water, and not anything more sticky, since the spray from his mouth drenched poor Doctor Tofu on the other side of the table. Akane's face turned red, and she had to thump herself a couple of times on the chest to dislodge the pickle before she could swallow it correctly.

Ranma found his voice first. "Mom! Akane and I are _not_ ready to have any children yet! We're still in high school, and we both plan to go to college. We don't have time for any children yet."

Akane quickly spoke to support her husband. "Ranma's correct, Mother Saotome. While both of us _do_ want to have children, we need to wait a while first. We may decide to do so before we finish college, but certainly not before we start it, and even then such a decision will be made at some point in the future."

"What's all this stuff about college?" Genma put in. "There's no need for that. As soon as he's out of high school, Ranma should start teaching in the dojo while you start raising your children."

The two teenagers became red-faced, and worked on reining in their tempers. "Pop, if the dojo is going to be run successfully and have more than a handful of students, then we need to have college degrees. We're both planning to major in physical education, which will give us the background we need to do it right, as well as the certification that prospective students will be looking for.

"Furthermore, Akane is my _partner_! Not just my wife, or the future mother of my children. She is the heir of the Tendo School of Anything Goes Martial Arts, and we will run the dojo _together_!"

Soun found himself silently agreeing with his daughter and son-in-law. His mind filled with daydreams of a dojo filled with classes of students learning his art.

"But Ranma," his mother took up the thread again, looking somewhat confused, "the two of you are married now, and are presumably sharing a bed. Sooner or later Akane will get pregnant; these things do happen you know."

Akane's face now turned red as a result of a blush, rather than anger. "We have taken steps to see to it that no such accident will happen, Mother." The last title was said somewhat shyly.

"You don't mean that you are using some sort of birth control!" Nodoka Saotome was aghast, while Ranma was making shushing noises, looking around wildly, while Akane looked like she wanted to sink through the floor. The woman's voice had not been particularly quiet. "How could you do such a terrible thing?"

Akane looked puzzled now. "I'm afraid that we don't see what is terrible about it. We're not ready for children yet, so we're seeing to it that we don't have any yet. We _will_ have children, but not until the time is right."

Nodoka merely glared at the two of them, not saying anything more, and the meal ended rather tensely.

The arguments about grandchildren, or starting to teach at the dojo immediately after graduating from high school, continued throughout the weekend. Although it was difficult, Akane and Ranma remained polite and barely respectful toward his parents, but continued to firmly state that they would be attending college and would wait before having children. Soun carefully stayed out of the arguments.

At the train station after their visit, Ranma was walking back from the restroom when he spotted his parents standing a bit apart from the others, apparently having a private word. He caught his mother's voice saying "what do you mean" and slipped closer to try to overhear.

"What I mean," his father was saying quietly, "is that I found the girl's birth control pills in the bathroom, and I nipped out and bought some vitamin pills that looked similar and replaced the original pills with the vitamins. That's why we should be hearing soon about Akane being pregnant. Further, if they have a child to raise, maybe they'll give up on this idiotic college idea and start teaching right away."

Ranma saw red. He stormed over and hit a pressure point on his father's back that made his legs collapse under him. He then dragged the man over to the others, Nodoka trailing nervously behind, and threw him down in front of his roommates, followed by grabbing the older man's shoulder in a pain hold.

"Now, old man, you will repeat to them what I just overheard you telling my mother. And by the way, the pills in the bathroom were _Kasumi's_ you old fool!"

Genma went white, partly from the pain of the hold, partly from being caught, and partly from sabotaging the wrong girl. He managed to stammer out a confession and an apology, although the latter was so weasel worded as barely to meet the definition.

"Okay, Pop, your train is here. I suggest you get on it and get out of our sight. Mom," Ranma sighed, "I do love you, and I promise that one day you will get the grandchildren that you want. You just need to be a little patient. We would be happy to have you visit again, but I would like to ask that next time you please leave your husband at home."

His mother looked at him in exasperation, then sighed and nodded. She stepped forward and gave both him and her daughter-in-law hugs, then also hugged Doctor Tofu and Kasumi for good measure. While hugging Kasumi, she whispered a second apology into her ear.

"I'm sorry if my friend has caused you trouble, daughter," Soun said as he hugged Kasumi good-bye. While hugging Akane, he said, "I'm proud of you daughter, and I expect that you will do very well in college." He shook the hands of both of his sons-in-law, then climbed aboard the train with Nodoka.

As they were leaving the station and heading to the car, Akane said to her sister, "Well, one advantage to having to share a bedroom the last couple of nights is that the old fool's plans won't have done any harm. I know that _I'll_ be glad to be back in our bedroom by ourselves tonight, with a bit of privacy again."

Kasumi however was still looking a bit shaken. "Unfortunately, sister, those trips that Tofu and I made to his clinic yesterday and this morning to straighten out some of his files were not spent only working on the files."

"Oh? Oh! Oops. Um, sorry." Akane was blushing. Interestingly, Kasumi was not.

Kasumi turned to her husband. "What will be, will be. We'll use alternate methods until I can refill the prescription, and see what happens."

Tofu nodded. "It's not very likely anyway. While missing days is a dangerous game to play, in reality it normally takes the body a little while to return to normal, so the risk should be low."

* * *

It was a couple of weekends after the parents' visit, and another, more welcome, visitor was arriving. Tofu, carrying several bags draped over his shoulders and in his hands, held the apartment door open to allow Nabiki to step through. The other three residents were sitting around a table piled with books and papers. The younger couple simultaneously said, "Hi, sis," while Kasumi called out, "Hello, sister."

"Hello yourselves. Studying hard?"

Ranma groaned. "Yes. I wanted to take a break half an hour ago, but my wife wouldn't let me. You'd think that the national entrance exam was tomorrow, rather than a week away.

"Well, you just keep studying hard, brother-in-law. You don't want to have to be on the outside looking in while my sister attends college. Can someone show me where I'll be sleeping?"

Tofu answered her. "You'll have the spare futon that's in Akane's and Ranma's bedroom. I'm taking your luggage back there now; come on and I'll show you."

After Nabiki came back out she sat and talked with the others for a while. It did not escape her notice that Kasumi was looking a little nervous. "So, older sis, what's up? You don't seem to be quite as calm and collected as usual."

Ranma spoke. "It was my idiot pop."

"Huh?"

"Ranma's father decided to substitute some placebos for Akane's birth control pills," Kasumi explained. "Unfortunately he got the wrong ones. Mine that is. Tomorrow I will be three days overdue, and will use a home pregnancy test to see what result it gives me."

Nabiki shook her head. "Is that idiot ever going to stop screwing up our lives? Oh well. We'll be there for you sis, whatever happens."

"What Nabiki said," added Akane.

After talking for a bit longer, Nabiki allowed the others to return to their studying, and she and Tofu started gathering up clothing to do the laundry. When they came back, she started on the dishes which had been piling up. She started to make a comment about the undone chores to her older sister, but then bit it back.

The next day Kasumi emerged from the bathroom looking rather shaken, to report that the pregnancy test had been positive. Her sisters came up and hugged her, lending their support. A few minutes later her husband came up to her.

"I just got off the phone with your gynecologist. I've got an appointment for you with her tomorrow, to have a more thorough test done."

Kasumi just nodded, but had accepted the fact that she was going to have a child. She was in fact more than ready to become a mother, it was just that she knew it was going to make her dreams of a medical career more difficult to fulfill. Akane for her part was looking at her oldest sister wistfully. There was a part of her which deeply wanted to have a child of her own, even if she knew intellectually that it would not be a good idea yet.

"So Nabiki, now that Kasumi and I are married, and it looks like she's going to be a mother, when are you going to find someone?" her younger sister wanted to know. "Isn't it time for the Ice Queen to melt yet?"

Nabiki flushed. "As a matter of fact, I've been dating someone since last term. I just haven't wanted to mention it anywhere that daddy might hear, because I don't want him trying to interfere in my life the way that he has in yours."

All of them were staring at her now. "Okay, I can understand your reasoning," Akane said, "but you've got to give us details. Now!"

Nabiki grinned. "Hah! I don't _have_ to do anything, and I just think I'll keep his name secret for a bit longer. However, he's four years older than me, and is in law school at Tokyo University. His family could buy and sell the Kuno's out of their petty cash. Also, believe it or not, the money was not a consideration. As it happens, I managed to meet and start dating him before I found out how wealthy he is. Well, to be honest, it was obvious that he had _some_ money, just from how he dressed and where he took me to eat and so forth, I just didn't realize how much until later."

"You just don't want to give us his name, because you're afraid that we'll tell him all about your past," Ranma declared.

Nabiki smirked at him. "Actually, you're right about that, brother-in-law. I want to make sure that I have him completely hooked before I give you that opportunity."

"Look, could you just call me Ranma, or even Saotome or 'baka'? All of those brother-in-law's make you sound like Cologne with the way she always called me son-in-law."

The next evening as they sat down to dinner, Kasumi spoke up. "I have an announcement. As it turns out, I am _not_ pregnant. Apparently the home test produced a false positive. The doctor says that I'm probably late just because of the stress of worrying about it."

"Hey, that's good news sis!" Akane exclaimed. "... and ... sad news too."

"I know," the oldest of the sisters said softly. "I feel the same way. Well, it will happen one day," she continued more brightly. "For now, we need to get back to those books! I have a test to excel at now that I can put this concern behind me."

* * *

After the entrance exam was over, the three of them met outside the building where they had taken it. Akane and Ranma came out together to find Kasumi already waiting.

"I am _so_ glad that is over with," Ranma stated with conviction.

"Oh? You haven't forgotten we have to take the one for Tohoku in just a few days?" Akane asked her husband.

He groaned. "You didn't have to remind me. Although I'm actually not as uptight about that since I don't expect to get in there anyway. I'm just taking it to be able to say that I tried. So how do you think you did?"

"I ... think I did all right. You?"

"I'm sure I did great." His voice did not sound anywhere near as confident as the words. "How about you Kasumi?"

"I'm sure that I did just fine, thank you."

"Come on, let's go get some lunch before we head back."

* * *

More time had passed, and the four of them were walking into the apartment building after work, where Tofu pulled the mail out of their mailbox.

"Looks like there are some official letters here. I think you've got your results."

Everyone grabbed the letters from him and tore them open, poring over the contents intently.

"So how'd you do dear?" Tofu asked his wife.

"Just fine," she beamed. "My scores were everything I could have hoped for. Akane, Ranma?"

Akane was now looking over her husband's shoulder, comparing his results to hers. "Baka, you only scored a few points lower than me. And you were so worried."

"Hey, who said that I was worried? I knew I had done great."

"Yeah, right, someday you need to remember what a terrible liar you are. In any event, I wouldn't say that either of our scores is exactly 'great' but they are pretty good. I'm happy enough with them."

* * *

The two couples were eating dinner when Kasumi and Akane spoke simultaneously: "I've got some news to share."

Akane smiled. "You first."

Kasumi looked around the table, then said, "I've been accepted into the pre-med program at Tohoku University."

"Kasumi! That's wonderful!" Akane exclaimed.

"Yeah, congratulations sis," Ranma added.

Kasumi smiled, then inquired, "Okay, what about you two?"

Akane looked at Ranma, and then back at the other two. "Ranma and I spoke to our guidance counselor today. We've both been accepted into the physical education program at Sendai College. It's not as prestigious as Tohoku, but it will give us what we want."

Tofu said, "That's great you two. So you'll be staying here in Sendai to go to college instead of going back to Tokyo. Do you plan to continue living here with Kasumi and me, or do you expect to get a place of your own?"

Ranma answered him, "Well, we'd like our own place, not that it hasn't been great living here with you two, Doc. Once we graduate we'll see if the college can help us find a decent place for married students at a price we can afford. But we're hoping to keep living here until we find a place."

"That's fine, Ranma. The two of you are welcome to continue living here, and contributing to the rent, for as long as you like. Or at least until Kasumi and I actually do decide to start a family, at which time we'll want the other bedroom, but that should be a long way off yet."

* * *

Graduation day arrived. Akane did not at first notice that Ranma, sitting beside her, had dozed off during the last interminable speech. With a trace of wonder in her voice, she asked, "Did you believe we'd ever make it to this day?"

"Huh? What?" Ranma snapped awake. He was amazed to find that the speaker at the front of the auditorium was even more incredibly boring than the one who had been talking when he fell asleep.

"I said, did you believe we'd ever make it to this day, baka?"

"Well, I always knew you would, tomboy," he replied with a grin. "I was never all that sure about myself, though."

"We've finished high school, or at least we will have as soon as that bore up front shuts up and they give us our diplomas. We're married. We've signed the lease to move into the upstairs apartment of that nice lady's house near the college in two weeks, even if it is rather small. And soon, we'll be starting college."

Ranma considered her words, then added, "Yeah, but there's a lot more to come. Graduating from college, getting the dojo started again, having children, spending the rest of my life with you. This isn't an ending, it's just one more stepping stone. I'm just glad that I'm taking the steps with you."

"That's sweet, Ranma."

"Yeah, well. At least the parents haven't made too much fuss since they got into town yesterday. Let's hope they continue to behave themselves."

Akane grinned, and reminded him, "Nabiki's helping to keep an eye on them."

Ranma sighed. "I wish Ukyo and Konatsu could have made it, and that we could have gone to her graduation. Stupid schools, scheduling them for the same day."

"Have you heard any more about how the two of them are getting along?"

"They're still dating. I haven't heard anything about it getting more serious yet. I did hear a rumor that she was caught trying to hide a massive hickey on her neck a couple of weeks back."

Akane giggled. "Well, I wish them the best. You ready for that party tonight?"

Ranma shuddered. "Oh, man. Do I _have_ to go? You know he has a pool, and I got the worst feeling that somehow I'm going to end up falling into it. I managed to get through the whole year without any of the other students finding out about my curse. I really don't want to risk blowing it now."

"Ranma, you can't hide your entire life when such possibilities arise. You're just as likely, if not more so, to get splashed by a random glass of water when someone trips. Just stay away from the pool area, and I'll try to steer you clear of it if you forget."

"I suppose. All right, I'll go, I'll go." His voice sounded very long suffering.

Akane looked back up at the stage. "Hey, I think the windbag just finished! Yep, he's stepping back and they're signaling the first row to stand up and head toward stage. It's time to graduate, husband-mine."

Their row, the second, stood up and turned to the side to file out. Ranma found himself standing behind his wife, looking down at her athletic figure and short black hair. He was proud of her, that she had come so far with him through such adversity to reach this point. He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a quick hug, before continuing toward the stage. They had come through the craziness together, side by side, as they would face any other challenges yet to come in the future. They were Ranma and Akane Saotome, partners in martial arts and in life, and they were the best.

* * *

Author's note:

Yes, I know that students in Japan generally find out results by looking for their assigned test number on a publicly posted board. I just didn't feel like writing it that way.


	17. Epilogue

**Sendai  
By M. Zephyr**

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is a trademark of Rumiko Takahashi and VIZ Communications, and its characters have been borrowed without permission. This story was written for non-commercial purposes only.

Ranma x Akane. See the bottom of Chapter 1 for an author's note dealing with the entirety of this story.

A collection of scenes, from immediately after chapter 16, to several years later.

* * *

**Epilogue**

Meanwhile, near a remote village in the Qinghai province of China ...

‹Where am I now?›

The surrounding trees and mountain ridges did very little to answer the question. However, there was a stream flowing down a waterfall from the hillside he stood beside, and a stand of trees nearby acted somewhat as a windbreak. It seemed like a good place to set up a camp. Ryoga shrugged his pack off of his tired shoulders.

‹Damn Ranma anyway.›

It wasn't particularly clear what Ranma was to be damned for, not even to the boy thinking the thought. The thought was more of a habit than anything else, and came to him easily as he was pulling a tent out of his very large pack. Due to a great deal of practice, it wasn't long before the tent was set up, a small fire was burning, and the rabbit he had killed earlier was skinned and cooking over the fire. He sat back meditatively while he waited for it to finish, wondering what else in his life could go wrong, and the reasons why Ranma would be responsible for it doing so.

As he was thinking about taking the rabbit off of the fire, he heard a twig snap a short distance behind him, and leapt to his feet, spinning around and dropping into a fighting stance. He was quite surprised to see a young woman with purple hair.

"Shampoo? What are you doing on Hokkaido?"

"Stupid pig-boy. You is in China, near home village."

"Oh. Well then, what are you doing here? Why aren't you back in Japan chasing Ranma? By the way, I found out where he is. He's in a city called Sendai, attending a school called Masamune."

Shampoo practically growled, clenching her fists. "Idiot boy! Shampoo already know this! And beside, he graduated by now, so no longer going to that school. Am here because great-grandmother make Shampoo come back to village, say can no chase Ranma anymore, must be punished by council. Why you no take Akane away from Ranma before all this happen? Then Shampoo would have Ranma!"

"Hey, why didn't you drag Ranma back here a long time ago? Then Akane would have been free to fall in love with me! As far as I'm concerned, it's your fault, not mine! Well, your fault and Ranma's also."

Unfortunately for Ryoga, Shampoo's temper was stretched a little thin at that moment. She had been devastated at being forced to give up on Ranma, and had been humiliated to appear in front of the council to be punished for it, even if the punishment hadn't been as severe as it could have been. She had just returned from a visit to the Musk that morning, who weren't exactly her favorite people to deal with, and had been forced to immediately turn around and join the hunting party she was out with, tracking down a rabid bear. Ryoga's complaint was just one straw too many.

"You stupid pig-boy! It all your fault, not Shampoo's. You too stupid, too weak, to fight Ranma. You coward about facing Akane, not know what to do with woman even if had one. You a pathetic excuse for male, even stupid Mousse is smarter. I teach you lesson now should have been given long ago."

With that she pulled out her bonborri.

"Are you challenging me Shampoo? Even Ranma only wins against me by trickery; you wouldn't stand a chance."

This time Shampoo really did growl. "Yes, I challenge you. Show you how stupid and weak you are."

Ryoga snorted. "Fine by me. I could use a good fight right now. Bring it on!"

From the trees nearby, an old woman's eyes watched the scene unfolding before her. With the hand not holding her staff, she waved back the warriors behind her.

The two combatants closed quickly, only to have a swing of a bonborri send the boy flying, to bounce off of the hillside near the waterfall. However, he climbed right back to his feet, laughing. Shampoo hissed slightly as the memory of just how tough Ryoga is was finally recalled to her, and she knew that this fight was going to be much more difficult than she had planned.

The fight continued for some time. The rabbit, fire and tent were early casualties, being trampled into the ground. The trees nearby suffered a fair amount of damage also. Both contestants were bruised and bloody, and Shampoo was trying to catch her breath against what she suspected to be another cracked rib. They were now circling each other warily.

Shampoo moved in again, swinging her remaining bonborri, striking with all of the speed of a cobra. However, it wasn't fast enough, as Ryoga stepped inside the swing and caught her under the chin with an open palm strike. The bonborri went flying in one direction, and Shampoo in another, where she landed hard on her back. That landing probably would have hurt a great deal, particularly the way her head hit the ground, if it weren't for the fact that she was unconscious before she came down.

Ryoga grimaced slightly as he stretched; some of the bruises actually hurt. The fight had however been rather cathartic for him, and he was feeling less depressed than when he had set up camp, despite the loss of his dinner. Mindful of Shampoo's curse, he picked up some water which had been sitting near the fire to heat, and holding it at shoulder height, poured it down onto her face.

Shampoo spluttered and coughed the water out of her nose and mouth, struggling to sit up. She managed to do so, looking around a little dazedly at first, recalling what had just happened. ‹I lost,› she moaned mentally. Suddenly, the potential implications occurred to her, and she looked around a little wildly to make sure that there had been no witnesses. With a very audible groan this time, she saw Cologne stepping out of the trees.

The elder helped her great-granddaughter to her feet, and gave her a little shove in Ryoga's direction, where he was bent over with his back to them picking up some of his stuff which had suffered in the battle.

"Well, great-granddaughter, it looks like you've won yourself a husband."

"WHAT?" Ryoga's shout would have frightened off all wildlife in the area, if the earlier fight had not already done so. He stood back up, spinning around quickly, only to find Shampoo right in his face.

With a look of immense resignation on her face, Shampoo leaned forward slightly and kissed him right on the mouth.

"Wo ai ni, airen." It sounded like every word were being dragged out of her throat, over broken glass.

"Uh uh, no way, ain't gonna!" Ryoga was backing away from her rapidly, waving his hands in front of him. He saw Cologne gazing placidly on the scene from behind Shampoo. He contemplated the possible loss of his tent and some cooking utensils, decided that under the circumstances it would definitely be worth it, grabbed his pack as quickly as he could, and turned and ran for the trees.

Cologne gave a negligent signal with her hand, and a group of female warriors stepped out of those trees, holding swords. They looked mildly amused, but their expressions also indicated that they would use the swords if necessary. Ryoga skidded to a halt and looked behind him. To his complete lack of surprise, more warriors were stepping out of the trees back there. He shuddered, and the pack fell from nerveless fingers. He turned back toward Shampoo and Cologne with a terrified look.

"Can we talk about this?" he practically begged. His only answer was a shake of Cologne's head. Shampoo's eyes were looking down at her toes, but her expression was one of disgust.

An hour later a circle of warriors marched back into their village, swords still drawn, and with a visibly depressed boy marching in their midst. Cologne was at their head, and an equally depressed Shampoo was trailing behind, dragging her feet in the dirt. They led Ryoga to the council hall, where the elder suddenly appeared in front of him, her staff coming toward him, and he lost consciousness.

He awoke to find himself naked except for boxers, chained spread-eagled to a stone floor in the midst of glowing diagrams. There was a circle of elderly Amazon females around him, chanting. The air felt thick, and he found that he was unable to speak. These conditions persisted for what he judged to be about twenty minutes before the chant ceased, the floor stopped glowing, and the air seemed to clear.

"What happened? What have you done?" His throat felt very dry.

One of the women came up to him and poured a small amount of drink into his mouth. It was alcoholic, but not very strong. As he got a better look at her, he saw that it was Cologne.

"Your family suffers from an inherited curse, son-in-law, which in the past has both caused you to get lost, but also caused you to home in on people who are familiar to you. If you have suspected that this trait is magical in nature, then you were correct. We have just modified it. So long as you remain in the near environs of our village, you will not get lost. However, whenever you wander away from it, you will not home in on any person but will instead home in on this village. To put it bluntly, you cannot escape; if you attempt to do so, you will merely end up coming right back here."

"What if I refuse to marry Shampoo?"

"You're already married to her, in the eyes of our laws. Now, you cannot escape our village. The only home you will have here is the one that she shares. The only food that you will have is that which is provided to her house. Strong you may be, but you cannot stand against all of our warriors, and if you disobey you will be punished. The same goes for Shampoo, who seems to be little more happy about these events than are you. You are expected to provide strong children for our people; if your wife does not turn out to be pregnant within a few months, then steps will be taken to 'help' the two of you along. We will release you now and escort you to your new bride."

So saying, the chains were removed from him, and he was handed clothing typical of the village males to robe himself in. Seeing little other choice, he did so and was led to a small house, where Shampoo was waiting at the door. Upon seeing him, she sighed quietly, and motioned him to come inside, which, after a moment's hesitation, he did.

As the door closed behind him, he asked quietly, "Is there any way out of this?"

She shook her head. "No. Great-grandmother is insistent. Cannot let another husband get away, shame would be far too great. We have no choice, even if you no like, even if I no like. We no have wedding night tonight, but cannot put off too long, or great-grandmother will use potions. But tonight I start teaching you our language. If must have you as husband, then you learn to speak to wife properly."

Ryoga sighed, and hung his head deeply, wondering just how the hell this was Ranma's fault.

* * *

On a bright, sunny day, a young married couple were making their way into a building on a college campus.

"Ready for your first day of college, Ranma?"

"Yeah, I guess. Who'd have ever thought, back when I first showed up in Nerima, me going to college?"

"Nobody who saw you sleep through all of your classes that day, certainly. However, they probably would have thought it more likely than that we would be married when you did so."

"Heh, I suppose so. Still, there's nobody that I'd rather be going to college with than you, tomboy."

"The same goes for me, baka."

* * *

Time had passed. Akane and Ranma were sitting down to lunch in a campus cafeteria, and he was speaking. "So love, what do you think of that offer to teach part-time at the dojo on weekends?"

"I think we should take it. It'll be valuable experience for when we start teaching at our own."

"That's what I was thinking too. Hey, guess who called this morning after you left. It was Ukyo, wanting to let us know that Konatsu proposed to her, and they're planning to get married next summer. They're planning a western ceremony with all the trimmings, and want to know if we're willing to be best man and matron of honor."

Akane smiled happily. "What'd you tell her?"

"That I had to ask you, of course, but that I was pretty sure that you'd say yes. She sounded pretty happy. She's been waiting for it long enough; they've been dating for more than two years now, and she confided in me nearly a year ago that she was hoping they'd end up getting married."

Akane was genuinely pleased for her one-time rival. "I'm glad. We'll call them up tonight and tell them we'd be happy to do it."

Ranma returned his attention to his meal. "Good. So what do you want to do after dinner, tonight?"

He gave a little eep, as he felt a hand grasp him high up on his thigh. In a sultry voice, his wife asked, "How about a repeat of last night?"

He turned to her and grinned tolerantly, "Jeez, when I think of the early days and how you'd always be bashing me and calling me a pervert ..."

"... who'd have dreamed that I'd end up being the more perverted of the two of us," she completed with a laugh. "Just thank your lucky stars, mister, 'cause you know you love it."

* * *

"Ranma, I received a letter today from father. You'd better sit down."

"Okay, I'm sitting. What is it?"

"It's about Happosai. They found him at an onsen lying on top of a huge pile of women's underwear. The doctors say that his heart just ... stopped."

"Oh. Um, well, the passing of an era, I guess. At least it's probably the way that he would have wanted to go."

* * *

"Akane Saotome."

He watched his wife as she walked ahead of him up to the speaker.

"Ranma Saotome."

It was his turn to walk up. He took his diploma from the outstretched hand, and bowed. As he finished walking across the stage, he smiled and waved at his relatives in the audience. Both of his parents were present, as were his father-in-law, his sisters-in-law Nabiki and Kasumi, their husbands, and Kasumi's six month old daughter Kimiko. It was only last weekend that they had attended Kasumi's graduation from Tohoku. She would be starting medical school in just a few weeks.

It was so hard to believe that they had finished college. They would be moving out of their apartment in just three days, and moving back into the old house in Nerima. They would take a short vacation, and then it would be time to put all that they had learned into practice, and start teaching martial arts at the dojo once more. Soun Tendo had decided to move out of the house and move in with Ranma's parents for at least a year, to allow the young couple a little more privacy while they started their business and their life together back in Nerima. Later he might decide to move back in with them.

Ranma felt more than ready to face the new challenge.

* * *

"Honestly, Ranma, I'm fine. I've already turned over all of the advanced students to you, and the doctor says it's perfectly all right for me to teach the basic classes for another month. Then Hikari-san will be coming down to stay with us for the next few months to help you out while his sons run their dojo."

"Okay, okay. Sorry. I've just never been a father-to-be before." He lay his hand tenderly on his wife's abdomen.

Akane smiled at him, the smile that had melted his heart the first time that he saw her. "And I've never been a mother before, but we'll be doing it together, partners in this just as in everything else. But maybe I should make you have the next one."

Her husband shuddered. "Don't even joke about that. Besides, you don't have the right plumbing."

She chuckled, then said, "By the way, Ukyo called a little while ago. She, her husband, and their two kids are coming by this afternoon. She said something about wanting to share horror stories about the later stages of pregnancy and giving birth, from the point of view of someone who's been through it."

"Oh." He sounded a little nonplused. "Well, try not to let her get to you with that stuff."

Akane grinned malevolently. "I'll be fine. It's your tail she's planning to twist with those stories, not mine, baka."

* * *

"It's a boy!"

Ranma stared down proudly at his newborn son, while holding the hand of his exhausted wife, wondering if feeling would ever return to his fingers where she had him in a vise-like grip. He was also a little worried, wondering if the baby was supposed to look that bloody.

"You two have a fine, healthy son. ... Actually," the doctor winced in pain as the newborn infant grasped his finger, "it seems to be a very _strong_ healthy baby. Just a moment and ... here you go Mrs. Saotome."

Akane looked down lovingly at the child which was finally on the outside of her body, then turned her gaze up to her husband. "He's beautiful," she whispered.

Ranma nodded, then leaned down over the tiny bundle in her arms. "Say hello to your mother, Ryuma. You don't know it yet, but you're the heir to the united School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."

The new mother punched his arm weakly. "Give him a chance to learn to walk before you start teaching him how to kick." She paused to contemplate what she had just said, then admitted with a wry smile, "Come to think of it, he's been demonstrating for the last several months that he already knows how to kick."

Ranma grinned in return. "No need to wait; there's plenty we can start teaching him before he learns to walk. Don't worry though, I'm not planning on taking him on any ten-year training trips."

"You'd better not, you baka!" Looking down again, "We do pretty good work, don't we?"

His own smile was tender. "Yeah, we do."

A little later, they were in a private room, and their new son was nursing. Their conversation had turned to details of the school.

"What did you tell your father?" Akane had just asked.

Ranma grimaced. "Thanks, but no thanks. We've united the two schools, and are running the dojo just like they always wanted. I've told them that they're just going to have to sit back and let us run it the way we want to, that their advice is not unwelcome but is unnecessary."

Akane's mouth twisted. "Huh, more diplomatic than I would have been. So, has Hikari-san made up his mind yet?"

This time Ranma gave his wife a broad smile. "Yeah, he's planning to stay with us and help out part-time at the dojo for an extended period, so that we can have a little extra time to raise our son. The school's doing well enough now that we can afford it, and his sons are having a grand time running their dojo without having their dad watching over their shoulders."

Akane smiled back, then the corners of her mouth drooped slightly. "I'm glad. Besides, it's probably going to take a while for me to get back into shape after this."

"Oh, a little while sure, but not too long I think. Before you know it, you'll be knocking me on my tush in the dojo, to the amusement of our students. It'll do them good to see me sparring again with someone who's actually capable of knocking me down. Makes it seem more realistic to them to aspire to reaching that sort of level themselves."

Ranma looked down at his beautiful wife, nursing their new son, remembering the cute but angry schoolgirl to whom he had first been introduced under ridiculous circumstances nearly nine years previously. They had faced many challenges during those years, but nothing that came close to stopping them once they had started facing those challenges together. He reached down and took her hand in his, and she smiled up at him. She was friend, lover, wife, partner. She was his and he was hers, forever.

**THE END **


End file.
